Selfishness has infested opposition unity: UP Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma

Selfishness has infested the opposition unity, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma claimed here on Monday, ahead of the two-day meeting of the BJP's rival parties in Bengaluru.

Top leaders of 24 opposition parties are likely to attend the two-day brainstorming session to chalk out a strategy to unitedly fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Hitting out at the opposition parties' attempt to form a grand alliance, senior BJP leader Sharma said, "No matter how many alliances are formed, they will not be able to counter PM Narendra Modi."

"Ninety-nine per cent of the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) has disintegrated. People do not have faith in leaders of opposition parties, while the faith in Modiji has increased," he said.

"The (opposition) clan was never united. Internal cracks have always been there. With termite infestation, things become hollow from the inside. Selfishness has infested the opposition unity and is taking it towards its termination," Sharma told PTI,

He claimed that without leadership and with no issue in hand, the opposition parties are in "depression".

"This is an incongruous alliance forged only with elections in mind. Once the elections are over, it will scatter once and for all," the BJP leader said.

Fifteen parties attended the last meeting for opposition unity hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23. "This time we are expecting leaders of 26 parties," a source had said.

The meeting also comes in the backdrop of a split in the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the panchayat polls in West Bengal which saw widespread violence, claiming many lives with state units of the Congress and Left parties accusing the TMC government of oppression.

The sources said the opposition parties will chart out a joint plan of agitation plan across the country against the policies of the BJP, especially after the NCP split in Maharashtra.