Sonia Gandhi: Lok Sabha polls ultimate goal for Opposition

New Delhi, Aug 20 (UNI) The Lok Sabha elections of 2024 is the ultimate goal of the Opposition, interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Friday urging parties to rise above their differences as she addressed a meeting of top Opposition leaders.
The meeting attended by several Opposition chief ministers and leaders from 19 parties, including Congress comes after a display of Opposition unity in the recent Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Sonia Gandhi talked about Opposition unity in Parliament and said: “I am confident that this unity will be sustained in future sessions of Parliament as well. But the larger political battle has to be fought outside it.”
“Of course, the ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution,” she said.
She added that the Opposition needs to rise up to the challenge together as there is “no alternative to working cohesively together”.
“We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them,” she said.
Sonia Gandhi also referred to a letter written by Opposition leader in May on the vaccination strategy, and said crucial changes were introduced in the procurement system of vaccines following Opposition intervention.
She also gave Opposition parties for the OBC bill, which restores state government’s right to have a list of backward classes, and said the government had “erred three years back” when the Bill for the OBC commission was passed.