New Delhi: With just a few days left for the commencement of Parliament’s Winter Session, some regional parties are trying to put up a united front against the Narendra Modi government which enjoys a clear majority in the Lok Sabha.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh on Thursday hosted a lunch meeting for leaders of regional parties in this regard. Amongst the list of attendees were RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, JDU chief Sharad Yadav, JDS chief Deve Gowda and Indian National Lok Dal’s Dushyant Chautala.
The meeting is being held at Mulayam’s New Delhi residence. JDU sources told CNN-IBN that the meet has been called to discuss strategies of a possible united front in Parliament.
Interestingly, the Left parties which had initiated the formation of a ‘Third Front’ have not been invited for discussions. It has to be noted that Left fared badly in the Lok Sabha elections as it won just 10 seats as opposed to its last tally of 24.
Ever since Modi led the Bharatiya Janata Party to an absolute majority in the 16th Lok Sabha elections, there have been various attempts by regional leaders to join hand to counter the ruling coalition.
While Mulayam’s party has just five MPs in lok Sabha, RJD has only four members. The JDU, JDS and INLD have two MPs each.
In Bihar JDU and RJD joined hands after several years of bitter rivalry to take on a resurgent BJP. The Congress and NCP too have been a part of the “mahagathbandhan” (major alliance) in Bihar.
The Bihar “mahagathbandhan” was able to check the BJP in the August bypolls of 10 Assembly elections winning six seats.
INLD which was hoping to do well in the recent Haryana Assembly elections failed to counter the BJP and finished as poor second winning just 19 seats. BJP secured majority in the 90-member Assembly for the first time winning 47 seats.
