Second Oppn meet in B'luru on July17-18, two days ahead of Parliament's Monsoon session

The second meeting of the Opposition parties will take place on July 17-18 in Bengaluru, two days ahead of the Parliament's Monsoon session that gets underway on July 20, Congress said on Monday.

In a tweet, Congress General secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said, "After a hugely successful all-opposition meeting in Patna, we will be holding the next meeting in Bengaluru on 17 and 18 July, 2023."

"We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces and present a bold vision to take the country forward," Venugopal added.

Meanwhile, Congress sources said that it has sent the invite to all the parties, who had joined the first meeting of like-minded parties in Bihar's Patna on June 23.

An invite has also been shared with AAP and it is upto them if they want to join the meeting or not. The source said that the decision to hold the meeting ahead of Parliament's Monsoon session was taken as several parties had communicated about engagements on July 13 and 14.

The Opposition meeting was initially supposed to take place in Shimla. However, on June 29, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said that the venue had been shifted to Bengaluru.

The fresh dates of the second meeting of the Opposition parties came a day after a split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), following Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar's rebellion and alliance with the BJP-Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra.

He took oath as Deputy Chief Minister along with eight more party MLAs in the state government and claimed stake as the real NCP.

Even Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has opened a front with the Congress over its ambiguous stance over the Centre's ordinance row.

The Monsoon session of Parliament will start on July 20 and conclude on August 11.

(With inputs from IANS)