Oppn meet on June 23 in Patna; Rahul, Kharge, Mamata among those to attend

"The opposition meeting will be held on 23rd June, in Patna. All opposition parties have agreed to this," JDU Prez

Several prominent opposition leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee will attend the opposition meeting, to be convened by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Janata Dal (United) (JDU) National President Lalan Singh informed and said that the meeting which was earlier scheduled to take place on June 12 has now been postponed to June 23.

"The opposition meeting will be held on 23rd June, in Patna. All opposition parties have agreed to this... Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Uddhav Thackeray, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, CPI Gen Secy D Raja, Sitaram Yechury and Dipankar Bhattacharya will attend the meet," Singh said while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday.

The meeting, which is aimed at laying the groundwork for the coming together of like-minded Opposition parties against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government at the Centre, was originally scheduled to be held on June 12.

However, the meeting was pushed back after several Opposition leaders, including Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, expressed their inability to attend the meeting on June 12, citing prior engagements and preoccupations.

After JDU had announced the meeting of Opposition parties on June 12, earlier, DMK chief Stalin said he had sought a postponement of the June 12 meeting, as he would be busy attending an inaugural ceremony on the same date.

"I will be attending the inaugural ceremony of Mettur Dam on the same date (as the Opposition meeting). It is an important event. Even the Congress president (Mallikarjun Kharge) will be held up at a different event and won't be able to attend the meeting on that day. So, I have asked for the meeting of Opposition parties to be pushed back. However, the DMK will surely participate in the meeting," Tamil Nadu CM Stalin said.

Nitish Kumar has been rooting for Opposition unity since he left the National Democratic Alliance and joined the Grand Alliance to form a new government in August last year.