New Delhi: Emerging out of the meeting held at residence of NCP leader Sharad Pawar, with Congress's Rahul Gandhi, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, TDP's Chandrababu Naidu in attendance, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee announced that the opposition will have a pre-poll alliance and a common minimum agenda.
"We'll work together at the national level. We'll have a common minimum agenda. We'll have a pre-poll alliance," said Mamata.
Opposition leaders will keep meeting in the coming days for better coordination, she said.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi called the meeting a "constructive" one.
"We agreed that the principal target for all of us is to wipe out assault on Indian institutions being carried out by Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS. We agreed to start a conversation about a common minimum programme and we've a commitment that we're all going to work together to defeat BJP," said Rahul.
Speaking to News18, Rahul further said that though there will be cooperation yet the parties will compete with each other.
"In Delhi, we will decide later and also in Bengal. The broader arrangement is to work together at the national level," Rahul told News18 reporter.
Telugu Desam Party head Naidu said there was a democratic compulsion to save India while Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference termed the meeting "good".
Part of the discussion, sources say, was on a possible alliance between Kejriwal's party and the Congress in Delhi. While the two parties are known for their political rivalry, the opposition leaders are of the view that a lack of an alliance in Delhi is likely to harm their larger agenda of a united opposition against the BJP.
Earlier in the day, at the opposition rally at Jantar Mantar, Mamata made it clear that she was willing to fight alongside the Left and the Congress against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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