Mamata Banerjee's mega Opposition rally: RLD chief Ajit Singh, vice-president Jayant Chaudhary to participate

New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh and vice-president Jayant Chaudhary will participate in West Bengal chief minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee’s mega opposition rally in Kolkata on 19 January. Meanwhile, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy will be leaving for the rally on Friday. The rally is seen as a show of strength by opposition parties before the Lok Sabha elections as politicos from non-BJP parties are all set to attend it. [caption id=“attachment_2806946” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] RLD chief Ajit Singh. PTI[/caption] It is also seen as an attempt to channelise efforts towards dethroning the current BJP-ruled Centre in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A senior TMC leader told ANI that former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, National Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will address the gathering, expected to be attended by lakhs of people. The top TMC leader also confirmed that Congress will be represented by its senior party leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi as party president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi will not be attending the rally. Among those to be present at the rally include Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin, National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Satish Misra, former Union ministers, disgruntled former BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, Opposition leader in Mizoram Lalduwahawma, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and Gujarat independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, along with Ajit Singh and Jayant Chowdhury of the RLD. Interestingly, BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha will also attend the anti-BJP rally. Over the years, Sinha has been attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a number of issues. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has been touring the country for the last one year in an effort to shore up a strong and united opposition front to fight the Lok Sabha elections against the BJP. With BJP’s recent electoral defeats in three states, Mamata has raised the pitch even higher to defeat the BJP and apparently playing an important role in fighting against the BJP in the 2019 general elections.