By India Today News Desk: Day before the highly-anticipated opposition meeting in Patna on Friday (June 23), Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress on Thursday said that it was a “good beginning” ahead of the 2024 general election. The meeting – to be hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar – is being held to arrive at a consensus to forge a united Opposition front to take on the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress emphasised the significance of anti-BJP parties uniting against “undemocratic and authoritarian policies”.

“A good beginning even before reaching Patna…All parties working to save the Constitution of the country are on the same page on many issues. For now, we have a date, a venue and an agreement that the head of every party will attend the meeting,” Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said, warning against “anyone jumping the gun and speculating”.

The meeting is expected to have top leaders of opposition parties in attendance – Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Sharad Pawar, Mehbooba Mufti, Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal.

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary, though, will skip Friday’s event. The UP politician wrote to Nitish Kumar on Thursday, expressing his inability to attend the meeting owing to a family function.

Nitish Kumar’s party leader and Bihar minister Vijay Chowdhary on Thursday said that the Patna conclave will be a “historic meeting” since such an event had never happened before. “The BJP can be defeated. Many opposition parties may have differences at state level, but this is the first opposition parties’ meeting and a common decision will be taken to fight together,” he said.

Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh on Thursday stressed the need for drawing up a common minimum programme (CMP) soon. The Congress leader claimed that if opposition parties were to unite and contest the Lok Sabha polls next year, the BJP’s tally would reduce to less than 100 seats. “We hope that all will sit together and an amicable solution will be reached to move forward together,” Singh said.Although the Patna conclave is being seen as a united effort to fight the BJP, the issue of leadership remains a contentious issue. However, senior Trinamool leader Sukhendu Shekhar Roy said, “Only media and BJP are bothered about it. Neither the opposition parties nor the people of this country are bothered about such a leadership issue.

Apart from who will be the prime ministerial face, seat-sharing is another area of concern for opposition parties. The Trinamool had earlier said that the party would support the Congress where it is strong in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP has dismissed the opposition meeting as a “futile exercise”, saying that such an “opportunistic alliance would not yield any results”.

It was Mamata Banerjee who had floated the idea of hosting a meeting of opposition leaders in Patna. She had invoked the memory of Jayaprakash Narayan while she met Nitish Kumar in Kolkata in April this year.

Nitish Kumar, who snapped ties with the BJP last year, will convene the meeting. The Bihar chief minister has held discussions with several leaders in the last few months and has emerged as the fulcrum of the campaign to cobble up Opposition unity.