PATNA: The proposed second meeting of non-BJP opposition parties, scheduled to be held at Bengaluru on July 13 and 14, has been postponed. The next date is yet to be decided.
Confirming the development, JD(U) chief spokesperson K C Tyagi told TOI on Sunday that the Bengaluru meeting has been postponed. “Hopefully, the next meeting (of Opposition parties) will be convened after the monsoon session of the Parliament,” Tyagi said.
The monsoon session of the Parliament will begin on July 20 and will continue till August 20 this year.
Sources said, the proposed meeting at Bengaluru was postponed mainly in the wake of the forthcoming monsoon session of the Bihar legislature (from July 10 to 14) and the Budget-cum-monsoon session of Karnataka assembly (from July 3 to 14).
Bihar’s two leading opposition parties – RJD and JD(U) – had earlier urged the Congress leadership to defer the Bengaluru meeting for few days as its leaders Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD leader and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav would be busy in the monsoon session of the state legislature.
Sources said, the Karnataka Congress, which was to host the Bengaluru meeting, also urged its central leadership to postpone the proposed opposition meeting on July 13 and 14 in the wake of the monsoon session of the Karnataka assembly.
Earlier on Thursday, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar announced that the proposed opposition parties’ meeting would now be held at Bengaluru, instead of Shimla, on July 13 and 14. “Owing to prevailing wet weather and heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh, the venue of the meeting (of Opposition leaders) has been shifted from Shimla to Bengaluru. The meeting would be held on July 13 and 14,” Pawar had said on Thursday.
While addressing the media after the first opposition parties’ meeting in Patna on June 23, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had announced that the next meeting would be held in Shimla either on July 10 or 12.