Emerging from their four-hour ice-breaking meeting in Patna on Friday evening, 32 leaders from 15 political parties kick-started their collaboration for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, resolving to unitedly fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a spirit of accommodating mutual interests.
A brief spat, which an Opposition leader dubbed a “misunderstanding” that lasted barely seven minutes, between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, threatened to unsettle unity efforts. Kejriwal insisted the Congress join his party to publicly denounce the Centre's ordinance on Delhi bureaucrats at the Patna meeting. He later skipped the joint press conference of the leaders and his party issued a stinging statement against the Congress.