'Oppn meeting will be held on June 23 in Patna': JD-U leader

Patna, June 7 (IANS) Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Lalan Singh on Wednesday said that the opposition meeting, that was earlier scheduled to be held on June 12 and then deferred, will now be held here on June 23.

Speaking to the mediapersons, accompanied by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the Bihar unit JD-U president said the June 12 meeting was postponed as "there were some issues over the date, and top Congress leaders were not available for the earlier planned date".

"Now, top Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin, Left leaders D. Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and CPI-ML national secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya have agreed on the date and they have given their consensus for this meeting. The venue of the meeting is Patna," Lalan Singh said.

Earlier, the Congress had said that Rahul Gandhi is in the US, and party president Mallikarjun Kharge also has pre-scheduled programmes which cannot be postponed.

"There were some issues over the date and hence we have rescheduled it. All top leaders of like-minded parties will assemble in Patna. It was possible through the efforts of our CM Nitish Kumar, former CM Lalu Prasad and other leaders. All parties in the opposition camp have general consensus to form a strategy against BJP and remove it from power as it (BJP) is hurting the Constitution," Tejashwi Yadav said.

"They (BJP) have imposed an 'emergency' in the country. No one would say anything. If anyone says anything against the Narendra Modi government, they would start targeting him by using the CBI, ED and Income Tax department. We will hold a meeting of all opposition parties to remove the BJP government from the Centre, and bring democracy to the country again," said Lalan Singh.

According to sources, the Congress had objections over the original date as June 12 was the day when Jayaprakash Narayan had started the Sampoorna Kranti movement against the Congress party in 1975 in Patna.

A source said: "Hence, the Congress had an uneasy feeling. There was also a buzz over the party's top leadership not being satisfied with the venue. They wanted the meeting to be held in one of those states where the Congress is in power. Shimla was proposed as a possible venue."

However, according to the source, Nitish Kumar was very firm on the venue, and so was Mamata Banerjee.