Bengaluru: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Indian National Congress will be named Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the 26-member grouping of Opposition parties decided on Tuesday during the joint-opposition unity meeting held here.
While the first day of the meeting saw informal discussions followed by a dinner meeting, formal deliberations took place on Tuesday including deciding on the name of the alliance, structure and common agenda.
During the dinner meeting, all political parties were asked to suggest names for the alliance following which four new names were sent to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Top opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, chief ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra along with party presidents and leaders of several parties were present at the meeting today.
The opposition leaders alleged the country's democracy was being "played with" under the BJP government and there was a need to protect the "idea of India".
Several leaders hit out at the BJP on Tuesday, saying their meeting here is aimed at saving the country, democracy and the Constitution.
"It's important we put up a united stand against everything going wrong: Constitution eroded, secular fabric undermined" former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said addressing the Opposition unity conclave.
"PM Modi made a complete mess of almost every sector in his 10-year rule. Time to get rid of him," Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday.
Speaking on day 2 of the Opposition meeting, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said, 'It will be constructive meeting. Its outcome will be good for the country.'
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that his party was not interested in either power or the prime ministerial post.
“We’re aware of differences between some of us at the state level; these are not ideological” and that they were not so great that they couldn’t be put aside for the “sake of the people”, Kharge said.
Kharge further said, “We are 26 parties, in government in 11 states. BJP didn’t get 303 seats by itself, it used votes of allies then discarded them.”
He also took a swipe at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting scheduled for today, saying that “BJP president (J P Nadda) and party leaders are running from state to state to patch up with old allies.”
In a Facebook post, Rahul Gandhi said, "A United Opposition - To protect our Democracy, To Safeguard India's Constitution." Discussions on state-wise seat-sharing and ironing out differences among regional outfits are on the agenda, they said, adding the issue of Manipur was discussed and the need for sending an all-party delegation to the violence-hit state stressed upon.
Among others at the meeting hosted by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), Farooq Abdullah (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), besides Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Jayant Chaudhary (RLD) and MDMK MP Vaiko.
Fifteen parties, including the Congress, TMC, AAP, CPI, CPI-M, RJD, JMM, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), SP and the JDU, attended the last meeting for opposition unity hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23.
Among the parties added this time are the MDMK, KDMK, VCK, RSP, CPI-ML, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph) and the Kerala Congress (Mani), besides the Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) of Krishna Patel and Tamil Nadu's Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) led by M H Jawahirullah.
The total strength of the opposition parties attending this meeting is around 150 in Lok Sabha.
With inputs from agencies