Mission Opposition unity: Nitish Kumar, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah among key leaders to attend INLD rally

New Delhi: Many prominent opposition leaders are set to meet on Saturday, this comes as an important development ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections for the mission of Opposition unity. NCP's Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray and DMK's Kanimozhi, Bihar Chief Minister, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, and NC leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by INLD in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.

On the other hand, RJD leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, CPM's Sitaram Yechury, and BJP's Birender Singh will also attend the rally to mark the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister and INLD founder Devi Lal.

INLD leader and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala has also sent invitations to several other regional bigwigs, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, and TDP's Chandrababu Naidu, for attending the public meeting. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has also been invited.

Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar to meet Sonia Gandhi after INLD rally

Apart from this, RJD president Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar are set to meet after interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi after their rally.

"It will be a historic meeting that will mark the consolidation of like-minded forces against the ruling BJP in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," JD(U) leader KC Tyagi has said.

This will be the first meeting between the three parties in more than five years. Both the leaders are arriving in Delhi to attend a rally to be held in Fatehabad district on the birth anniversary of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) founder late Chaudhary Devi Lal by INLD leader OP Chautala.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lalu had said he, along with Nitish Kumar, will meet Sonia in Delhi."Everyone needs to be alert, BJP needs to be uprooted in 2024. I will go to Delhi and meet Sonia Gandhi soon. I will also meet Rahul Gandhi after the completion of his padyatra," said the RJD supremo.

During his last visit to Delhi, Nitish Kumar met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Kumar met with the Opposition leaders after he broke his alliance with the BJP and joined hands with Tejashwi Yadav`s Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress, and other parties to form a `Mahagathbandhan` government in Bihar.

Earlier Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had also visited Bihar and met Nitish Kumar, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as part of efforts toward forging opposition unity.

Meanwhile, various posters of Nitish Kumar projecting him as a prime ministerial candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha election were seen in Patna last month.

(With agency inputs)