INDIA Janbandhan United, 23 Parties Have Confirmed Participation: Congress
In a post on X, he said, "23 political parties have confirmed participation in the INDIA janbandhan meeting at Constitution Club, New Delhi, on Monday, June 8, 2026, at 12 noon"
New Delhi: Amid cracks in INDIA Bloc and with DMK refusing to attend the meeting so far opposition leaders of 23 parties have converged in Delhi for the INDIA Bloc meeting scheduled for Monday. The INDIA bloc is set to deliberate on the future course of action with an eye on the 2029 general elections. It would look to devise a joint strategy to corner the Modi government on national issues.
Trinamool Congress chief Ms Mamata Banerjee reached Delhi on Sunday. Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee flew a day ahead to see if the TMC flock in the Parliament remains intact following dissent and disintegration of the party in West Bengal. Ms Banerjee is accompanied by Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen and senior Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee.
The top TMC leadership is making an assessment of the situation within its own party amid buzz of problems cropping up among its Lok Sabha MPs after party whip in LS Kakoli Ghosh Dastdar raised a red flag over party’s functioning and conduct of fellow MPs in the wake of big defeat of TMC in recently assembly elections in West Bengal. According to rebel TMC MLA and deputy leader of the party's new legislative wing, Sandipan Saha, a development similar to that in the West Bengal Assembly is taking place within the parliamentary party in New Delhi. The TMC currently has 28 members in the Lok Sabha following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam.
CPI(M) will be represented by its Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas, even as the Left party awaits a response from the Congress over allegations during the Kerala Assembly election campaign. It is learnt that CPI (M) general secretary Mr M. A. Baby had recently written to Congress president Mr Mallikarjun Kharge seeking clarification on remarks by senior Congress leaders that suggested a political understanding between the CPI (M) and the BJP in Kerala.
Apart from TMC leaders, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Kharge are expected to attend the meeting. DMK has distanced itself from INDIA Bloc after Congress joined the TVK government in Tamil Nadu. TVK is not part of INDIA Bloc. The AAP has also distanced itself from the INDIA bloc.
“23 political parties have confirmed participation in the INDIA janbandhan meeting at Constitution Club, New Delhi on Monday June 8, 2026, at 12 noon. There are some parties who have expressed their inability to attend this particular meeting for their own reasons -- even though they have conveyed their strong opposition to the Modi government’s policies and actions that are snatching away the right to vote for millions of Indians, assaulting the Constitution daily, attacking Opposition leaders through investigative agencies, seriously damaging the livelihoods of crores of Indians, breaking household budgets through relentless price rise, betraying the hopes and aspirations of lakhs of youth, dampening investment climate, and compromising the national interest by its foreign policy. Like India, the INDIA janbandhan continues to stand united through its diversity,” Congress leader Mr Jairam Ramesh wrote on X.
Responding to Mr Ramesh, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mr Derek O’ Brien said, “Meeting with a common purpose and clear intent. INDIA united. Many parties look forward to meeting in the spirit of camaraderie.”
