I.N.D.I alliance meet called by Congress deferred after top allies convey unavailability

The I.N.D.I alliance meeting which was scheduled to take place in Delhi on Wednesday has been postponed, according to an NDTV report, citing sources. The meeting was deferred shortly after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joined Mamata Banerjee in expressing unavailability and decided to send their representatives instead. “The Samajwadi party national president has no plans to attend the meeting of the INDIA bloc tomorrow. Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav or any other leader authorised by the national president will go for the meeting,” Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI. However, it is not clear yet why the Bihar CM will be not be attending the meeting. According to reports, Nitish Kumar was likely to send party President Rajiv Ranjan and senior figure Sanjay Jha. On Monday, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she too would not attending the meeting citing prior commitments. “I will be visiting North Bengal from December 6 to December 11. I was not aware of the meeting date on December 6. Had I known about the meeting date beforehand, then I could have rescheduled my visit,” she said while addressing reporters outside Raj Bhawan on Monday. All three are senior members of the bloc; in fact, Nitish Kumar is widely seen as a founding member of the opposition grouping. According to NDTV, citing sources, Nitish Kumar, Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee aren’t the only senior I.N.D.I.A leaders who backed out of Wednesday’s meeting, underlining the growing chasm in the bloc as regional parties grumble (louder and louder) over the Congress insisting that it will continue to fight elections largely on its own. Leaders of the opposition I.N.D.I bloc were set to meet at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi tomorrow to formulate a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP swept Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on Sunday, inflicting a resounding defeat on the Congress to tighten its stranglehold in the Hindi heartland, in a big boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and setting the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In some consolation for the Congress in the face of the saffron wave after it lost Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the party ousted the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana. With inputs from agencies