NEW DELHI: Hinting that it has not given up on the plan to form a government at the Centre, the INDIA bloc on Wednesday said it will “take appropriate step at the appropriate time to fulfil people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP government”.
Briefing reporters after a meeting of INDIA bloc constituents here, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the participants discussed the political situation in the country and made a number of suggestions.
Reading out a statement issued jointly by the allies after the meeting, Kharge said, “The constituents of the INDIA bloc thank the people of India for their overwhelming support. The people’s mandate has given a befitting reply to the BJP and their politics of hate, corruption and deprivation. This is a political and moral defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
“This is a mandate in defence of the Constitution and against price rise, unemployment and crony capitalism of the Modi government,” the statement read.
“The bloc will continue to fight against the fascist rule of the BJP led by Modi. We will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to realise the people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP’s government,” it said.
While Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav Thackeray kept away from the meeting, it was attended by all other top leaders of the alliance.
Uddhav could not attend the meeting as all newly elected MPs were expected to meet him in Mumbai, sources said, adding that too much should not be read into his absence as he had sent his trusted lieutenants Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant to represent him in the meeting.
Besides Kharge, top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were present in the meeting. Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule of the NCP (Pawar), MK Stalin of the DMK, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Kalpana Soren and Champai Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Sitaram Yechury of the CPM, D Raja of the CPI and Dipankar Bhattachatya of the CPI(ML) took part in the meeting.
Mamata deputed Abhishek Banerjee, her nephew and political successor, to attend the meeting. With Arvind Kejriwal lodged in the Tihar Jail, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha represented AAP.
Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, NK Premachandra of the the Revolutionary Socialist Party and PK Kunhalikutty of the Indian Union of Muslim League also took part in the meeting.
A total of 33 leaders belonging to 21 parties participated in the meeting today.
The INDIA bloc has a total strength of 234 MPs with Congress leading the pack having won 99 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha poll. It needs 40 more MPs for the majority in the Lok Sabha.
While representatives of the Shiv Sena and TMC were in favour of making an aggressive push to stake claim for forming the government at the Centre, the general consensus was to wait and strike at an appropriate time.
The BJP-led NDA, which has won in more than 290 seas, has already set in motion the process of forming the government with its pre-poll allies such as the TDP of Chandrababu Naidu and the JD(U) led by Nitish Kumar standing firmly behind the BJP.