Opposition vs BJP: Here’s what to know about today’s meetings 

Today (July 18) is a special day in politics as in the national capital the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is all set to hold a meeting against the Opposition union, while down south in Karnataka, the opposition is ready to battle against them. It will be interesting to witness both NDA and the opposition debating against one another in two different meetings.

Here are the motive and details of both meetings:

Opposition meeting in Bengaluru

• In the opposition meeting, 26 parties from across the country will huddle at a second conclave after its Patna meeting on June 23. This meeting is all set to forge an electoral alliance for a battle against NDA-led by the ruling BJP in Lok Sabha polls to be held in 2024.
• The meeting will commence at 11 am ahead of the dinner hosted by Karnataka chief minister Siddharamaiah. Over 50 opposition leaders attended the meeting on Monday.
• In the meeting, the opposition union will discuss a joint plan against BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. This is the second time in the past two months that Bengaluru will host several political leaders since several of them gathered for the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
• Following the Patna meeting, it will be the second-grand opposition meeting to forge an anti-BJP political front. While today’s meeting was scheduled to be held at Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla, it was moved to Bengaluru amid the weather conditions in the hill State.
• According to the media reports, more such meetings are to be aligned to make a strategic plan against BJP this time. 

NDA meeting in Delhi

• The 38 parties allied with the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will hold an NDA (National Democratic Alliance) meeting in Delhi, said the party’s national chief JP Nadda. On Monday, he remarked that while NDA is for ‘strengthening India,’ the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is ‘leaderless and policy less.’ He dismissed the Opposition alliance as ‘good only for a photo opportunity.’
• The NDA meeting will be held on Tuesday, at 5 pm at Hotel Ashoka in New Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 
• In the meeting, Nadda also invited Rashtriya Lok Janta Dal President Upendra Kushwaha. Notably, NCP’s Ajit Pawar will attend the session seen as a show of strength by the ruling alliance, according to party leader Praful Patel. Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), who has also been invited to the NDA meeting, visited senior BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday.
• Nadda highlighted the PM Modi-led government’s efforts, calling it ‘Good governance’ in the last 9 years and that the ‘NDA government is continuously working on it.’
• This session comes amid the two-day joint Opposition meeting happening in Bengaluru, in which big names like Congress’ Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, etc. will be seen.