Kharge, Rahul to attend oppn meeting in Patna

New Delhi: The Congress stated that its president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party leader Rahul Gandhi will attend a gathering of opposition leaders on June 23 in Patna and that "we will succeed in defeating the divisive forces in power" in a statement released on Wednesday.

The Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav had stated in Patna that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would host a conference of opposition parties on June 23. This announcement prompted Congress to make its statement.

Addressing a press conference with JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh by his side, Yadav said that top leaders of most opposition parties, including Kharge, Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal have agreed to attend the meeting.

In a tweet, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said, “INC President Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge ji and Sh. Rahul Gandhi ji will be attending the joint opposition leaders’ meeting on June 23 in Patna.” “We believe that our unity and commitment to the purpose of defending democracy is the need of the hour and we will succeed in defeating the divisive forces in power today,” Venugopal said.

The meeting of opposition parties was earlier scheduled to be held on June 12, but was put off after some of them, including the Congress and the DMK, requested a change of date.

Nitish Kumar had recently said he was opposed to parties sending any leader except their respective heads to the meeting where the anti-BJP players will chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls next year.

With PTI inputs