Sharad Pawar to skip Oppn meet on Day 1, to attend on Tuesday

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar will not participate on the first day of the two-day joint opposition meeting to be held in Bengaluru from Monday, the party said.

However, senior Pawar will attend the meeting on Tuesday, second day of the meet, said NCP spokesperson Mahesh Bharet Tapase.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also said "Pawar will attend the meeting in Bengaluru tomorrow morning."

"After the Patna meeting, the Bengaluru meeting that will emerge today will be decisive. Shiv Sena Party Chief Uddhav Thackeray will attend the meeting. There was confusion about whether Sharad Pawar would attend the meeting or not. Pawar will attend the meeting in Bengaluru tomorrow morning. I am saying this with certainty. Hum Sab Ek Hai!," Raut said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, big posters and banners have been seen on Race Course Road in Bengaluru welcoming leaders of various opposition parties for the joint opposition meeting at the Taj West End Hotel in the Karnataka capital.

Gearing up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of at least 26 Opposition parties will converge at a hotel in Bengaluru on July 17-18 as part of their efforts to present a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the Centre.

As per a tentative schedule, on Monday, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications, Jairam Ramesh, and Congress general secretary, KC Venugopal will hold a joint press conference at 11 am. All the opposition leaders will arrive for the afternoon meeting.

An informal meeting is scheduled at 6 pm after which there will be dinner at 8 pm. On July 18, the meeting will kick off at 11 am and will continue till 4 pm.

Following this, there will be a press conference in which the campaign strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls may be announced.

The first mega Opposition meet was convened in Patna on June 23 by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. At the meeting, opposition heavyweights, including Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, brainstormed on a roadmap for an anti-BJP front in time for the next year's Lok Sabha elections.