Opposition leaders to meet on Feb 27 in Parliament to evolve CMP for LS polls

Leaders of a number of Opposition parties will meet in Parliament on February 27 to chalk out a 'Common Minimum Programme' for fighting the general elections, sources said.

The leaders have been invited to the meeting in Parliament House library where a collective strategy will be evolved to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, they said.

The opposition leaders may also work out an electoral strategy to oust the BJP from power. The opposition strategy on the Pulwana terror attack may also come up for discussion, they said.

The decision to formulate a common minimum programme was mooted at the February 13 meeting of opposition leaders that included the Congress.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had earlier proposed that there be a Common Minimum Programme of opposition parties and their primary aim should be to forge state-level alliances to defeat the BJP.

The last meeting was attended by Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, among others.

While leaders of a number of parties are likely to attend the February 27 meeting, sources say the Left is yet to decide on its participation.

The left parties are of the view that forging a national-level tie-up should be taken up after elections and so should be the common minimum programme, they said.

They feel that the priority should be to forge state-level alliances and the primary objective of the opposition parties should be at the national level to defeat the BJP.

"The Common minimum programme and other agenda can be worked out after the elections and the electoral seat sharing arrangement should be done now at state level," a senior left leader said.