New Delhi: Top opposition leaders, including Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Akhilesh Yadav and Sitaram Yechury, are attending a day-long convention in Delhi being organised by JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and his supporters on Thursday.
The 'sabha virasat bachao sammelan' in Delhi's Constitution Club is being seen as a show of strength by the Sharad Yadav-group in its fight against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to wrest control of the party.
Yadav said apart from the Congress, the Left and the SP, representatives of other opposition parties, including the TMC, BSP and NCP, also attended the meeting.
At a press conference in the national capital, Yadav did not take questions on his differences with Kumar and future political course. He claimed the event was not against anybody but in the interest of the country.
Asserting that "composite culture" was the soul of the Constitution, which he alleged was being "tinkered with", Yadav said similar meetings would be held across the country.
The former JD(U) chief said the decision to hold the event was taken weeks ago, when his party was still with the loose opposition group.
He cited incidents such as the suicide of Rohith Vemula and the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, besides suicides of farmers across the country, to suggest that the situation was tough for underprivileged people.
Differences between Yadav and Kumar came to the fore after Bihar CM quit Mahagathbandhan to join hands with the BJP last month.
In a show of solidarity on the part of larger opposition front, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi attended the conclave called by Yadav. Rahul Gandhi was earlier slated to travel to Gorakhpur on Thursday to meet the family of children who passed away last week in the BRD Hospital.
Sources added that meeting has been in the pipeline for some time now, and initially, had nothing to do with Nitish’s move with BJP. “Things have changed now. Thursday’s sammelan will be a big boost to the opposition in India. Everyone will be there,” a source told News18.
Sharad Yadav's sammelan in Delhi comes just ahead of the party executive called by Nitish Kumar in Patna this week. It is being seen as a preemptive move by Yadav to claim ownership of the party. Yadav and his supporters have claimed support of two other RS MP's and 14 state units.
In a statement, Yadav said Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel, besides former PM Singh and Gandhi from the Congress, Yechury of the CPI(M), Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Aggarwal of the SP, Manoj Jha of the RJD, Farooq Abdullah of the National Congress and former Jharkhand chief minister Babu Lal Marandi had confirmed their participation.
D Raja (CPI), Sukhendu S Roy (TMC), Ajit Singh (RLD), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Veer Singh (BSP) also attended the meeting, apart from representatives of farmers, Dalits and other sections of society.
The JD(U) has reportedly told Yadav not go ahead with the sammelan on Thursday. Yadav, however, remains defiant. JD(U) MP Bashishta Narayan Singh had recently claimed that Yadav would face disciplinary action for indulging in anti-party activities if he goes ahead with his sammelan.
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