New delhi : Congress president Sonia Gandhi on August 20 urged opposition party leaders to work together and plan systemically for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying the goal is to give the country a government that believes in the principles of the Constitution.
Addressing a virtual meeting of various opposition parties, she said, “Despite our compulsions, the time has come when interests of our nation demand that we rise above them”.
Leaders of 19 political parties participated in the virtual meeting convened by Ms. Gandhi, amid efforts to boost opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the NDA government.
“Of course, the ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the freedom movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution,” she said.
“This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them,” Ms. Gandhi said.
Among those who participated in the meeting were NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her counterparts from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Uddhav Thackeray and M.K. Stalin.
Parties such as TMC, NCP, DMK, Shiv Sena, JMM, CPI, CPI(M), NC, RJD, AIUDF, VCK, Loktantrik Janata Dal, JD(S), RLD, RSP, Kerala Congress (Mani), PDP and IUML took part in the meeting.
Leaders of AAP, BSP and SP were not present at the meeting.
