I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting held at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in Delhi

A meeting of the floor leaders of the I.N.D.I.A bloc culminated at Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in Delhi. According to the sources, the Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) skipped the meeting due to personal reasons.

The meeting began at around 7:00 pm in the national capital on Wednesday. 

Around 17 parties were present in the meeting including INC (Congress), DMK, SP, RJD, CPIM, CPI, NCP, NC, IUML, RSP, JMM, VCK, JDU, Kerala Congress (M), AAP, RLD and MDMK. 

Here's the list 

Opposition Leaders of Rajya Sabha:

1. Mallikarjun Kharge — INC

2. Pramod Tiwari — INC

3. Tiruchi Siva — DMK

4. Elamaram Kareem — CPIM

5. Dr Faiyaz Ahmad — RJD

6. Dr Ramgopal Yadav — SP

7. Vandana Chavan — NCP

8. Raghav Chadha — AAP

9. Binoy Viswam — CPI

10. Abdul Wahab — IUML

11. Vaiko — MDMK

12. Jayant Chaudhary — RLD

13. Dr. Jose K Mani  — Kerala Congress(M)

14. Mahua Maji — JMM

15. Jairam Ramesh — INC

16. KC Venugopal — INC

17. Dr. Syed Naseer Hussain — INC

18. Rajani Ashokrao Patil — INC

19. Javed Ali Khan — SP

Opposition Leaders of Lok Sabha: 

1. Rahul Gandhi — INC

2. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary — INC 

3. Gaurav Gogoi — INC 

4. ST Hassan — SP

5. TR Baalu — DMK

6. Hasnain Masoodi — NC

7. E.T. Mohd Basheer — IUML

8. NK Premachandran — RSP

9. Dr Thirumaavalavan Thol — VCK

10. Lalan Singh — JD(U)

11. Suresh Kodukkunnil — INC

12. D Ravikumar — VCK

Earlier today, amid



speculations that Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip the I.N.DI.A bloc meeting due to scheduling issues, the West Bengal Chief Minister clarified, saying that the opposition leaders will be meeting shortly whenever the Congress comes up with a favourable date.

"I was not informed earlier. Only a day before yesterday, Rahul called me up and told me about the meeting. We will be meeting shortly whenever they decide," Mamata said before leaving for her scheduled North Bengal tour on Wednesday.

Speaking about scheduling issues, the Chief Minister said that her counterparts need prior invitations at least seven or ten days in advance. "Other Chief Ministers also have meetings. They need to know about the program seven days ago or 10 days ago," she said.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that the next meeting of the INDIA bloc can take place between December 16 and 18 and many things including the face of the alliance will be decided at that time.

"The I.N.D.I.A alliance meeting was supposed to be held today but some prominent leaders were not available. There is a wedding in Mamata Banerjee's house, MK Stalin is busy with the relief operation in his flood-hit state, Nitish Kumar is not well, and Akhilesh Yadav is not available, therefore this meeting will be held on the 16th or 18th of December. The face etc. everything will be decided in the meeting. We are together and you will see its result in 2024," Sanjay Raut said.

Seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, which is just four months away, is likely to be at the top of the agenda. The next I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting would also be crucial for Congress, particularly as the party lost Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the Hindi heartland states that send a large number of members to the Parliament.