Mallikarjun Kharge postpones INDIA meeting as Mamata, Nitish, Akhilesh and Stalin opt out

PTC News Desk: Amid reports of disagreements between various INDIA bloc parties, the alliance has decided to reschedule the meeting of party heads for the third week of December. Earlier this week, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge called for a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders on Wednesday.

Several of the front leaders, however, responded with a lukewarm response. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated that she would continue with her state programmes as she was unaware of the meeting call.

"I don't know, I have no information so I kept a programme in North Bengal...If we had the information, we wouldn't have scheduled those programmes. We would have definitely gone (for the meeting), but we have not received any information," the TMC chief stated.

According to Congress sources, several key opposition leaders will be unable to attend the meeting that was originally scheduled for Wednesday.

MK Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, will be unable to visit Delhi due to the devastation caused by Cyclone Mandous in several areas of the state. Due to illness, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be unable to travel to the national capital. Similarly, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would have skipped it due to a family wedding.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren informed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge that he would be unable to attend a meeting on Wednesday.

"I will be busy here. I spoke to Kharge Ji yesterday, maybe a representative from our side will go" Hemant Soren said.

Gurdeep Sappal, coordinator in the Congress chief's office, tweeted that the INDIA Alliance's Parliamentary Party leaders would convene on December 6 at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence. However, the subsequent meeting of party presidents/heads of the India alliance will be rescheduled to the third week of December, accommodating everyone's convenience.

Following the Congress' losses to the BJP, its allies have criticised the party. Mamata Banerjee attributed the defeat to the Congress rather than the people. The SP accused the Congress of snubbing their coalition proposals in MP.

JDU leaders emphasised that the Congress must adopt a more inclusive approach to defeat the BJP, urging the party to collaborate more effectively with regional parties.