Oppn leaders vow to join hands to defeat BJP; to frame common minimum programme

Moving forward on a united anti-BJP front for the Lok Sabha elections, top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee Wednesday agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme to oust the Modi government and to consider forging a pre-poll alliance.

The meeting, hosted by NCP president Sharad Pawar at his residence here, also saw Congress chief Gandhi and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal coming together for the first time, while West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu said the entire opposition needs to come together due to "democratic compulsions to save India".

Leaders indicated that the parties may contest separately in some states, but there was an urgent need to work together at the national level. The BJP has been calling the attempts by opposition parties to forge an alliance a desperate bid to save themselves from the Modi government's crackdown on corruption.

After the meeting, which took place hours after opposition leaders shared a dias at an AAP protest on the day of the last sitting of the present Lok Sabha, Gandhi told reporters that opposition leaders agreed to have a common minimum programme.

"We will work together to defeat the BJP," said the Congress leader, who has taken the responsibility to circulate copies of a draft common minimum programme among the opposition leaders.

While SP and BSP, which are among key forces in politically-important Uttar Pradesh with its 80 Lok Sabha seats, were not present at the meeting, they have already announced an alliance between them for the national polls expected in April-May.

Congress has also already launched an aggressive campaign in the state with appointment of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia as general secretaries with charge of eastern and western UP, respectively.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal termed the talks as constructive and said the opposition will work together.

The meeting also indicated that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, who have been bitter rivals since the regional party came to power in Delhi in 2015, may forge a tie-up.

Trinamool Congress president Banerjee called the meeting "fruitful" and asserted that "we will do pre-poll alliance if needed".

Opposition leaders will keep meeting in the coming days for better coordination, she said.

Earlier in the day, she had said, "Any fight with the Congress will remain in the state. At the national level, we will fight together, this I am saying from the heart... For the greater interest of the country, I am ready to sacrifice my life, my party. I am ready to sacrifice everything."