The Congress should "identify, mobilise and align" like-minded secular parties to fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party said today in a fresh push for opposition unity. A third front will only help the BJP in the elections, the party said during a brainstorming conclave in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur.
"Unity of secular and socialist forces will be the hallmark of the future of the Congress party. Congress should go all out to identify, mobilise and align like-minded secular forces. We should include secular regional forces who agree with our ideology. There is an urgent need for a united opposition to take on the NDA on common ideological grounds. The emergence of any third force will provide an advantage to the BJP/NDA," the party said in a resolution.
In his address at the Congress' 85th plenary session on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the party was looking forward to aligning with like-minded parties for the Lok Sabha polls. "In the prevailing difficult circumstances, the Congress is the only party in the country that can provide capable and decisive leadership," he asserted.
From 2004 to 2014, the Congress-led alliance served the people of the country, he said.
The Congress's push for opposition unity comes as regional parties float the idea of third front for the national elections.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the president of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (earlier known as Telangana Rashtra Samitihi), has held meetings with several opposition leaders, including former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to forge an anti-BJP front.
But veteran politicians like Mr Pawar have maintained that the Congress cannot be left out of any alternative front.
