Ghamandia meeting: Sambit Patra takes dig at Oppn ahead of its 3rd meeting

NEW DELHI: BJP National Spokesperson Sambit Patra on Thursday came down heavily on the opposition INDIA bloc, alleging them to be involved in scams worth crores of Rupees.

Addressing a press conference at the party's national headquarters in Delhi, Sambit Patra said, "You all know that GM (Ghamindia meeting) is taking place in Mumbai. These parties have done scams and corruption worth Rs 20 lakh crores".

"It's a selfish alliance...Their agenda is maximum profit from corruption...", Patra alleged. The BJP leader termed the gathering of opposition leaders in Mumbai as one amounting to "musical chairs". "There is a game of musical chairs on between the alliance partners. This kind of alliance was formed earlier as well but by the time the elections came they started fighting amongst themselves" said Patra.

Patra compared the NDA alliance to Chandrayaan saying that they would land succesfully while the INDIA bloc would fail to even take off.

"We are Chandrayaan and our rover is already working on development whereas the Congress party's missile will not take off as it does not have fuel. Congress has tried everything to launch their missile, but they have failed. The people of this country very well know whose vehicle will land and whose missile will not even get launched" he said.

As the battle heats up for next year's Lok Sabha elections, the 26-member Opposition bloc — INDIA — will on Thursday hold its third meeting in Mumbai, picking up from where they left off in their last huddle at Bengaluru and carrying forward the process of laying a broader roadmap against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre. While the discussion among the partner leaders in the bloc would centre on the battle plan for the next general elections and a seat-sharing formula, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is also likely to unveil its logo during the two-day meeting starting Thursday. The INDIA leaders would go into an informal huddle on Thursday and the same would be followed by a formal meeting on September 1. While the inaugural meeting of the Opposition bloc was convened by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the third meeting is being organised by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Opposition alliance in Maharashtra comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Sharad Pawar.