NEW DELHI: The 'opposition India Alliance’ has decided to contest in as many seats as possible in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. An attempt is being made to create a situation where only one opposition candidate stands against the BJP candidate. This is to avoid splitting the votes. The decision was taken at the third official meeting of the India Front held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Mumbai. Sixty-three representatives from twenty-eight opposition parties participated in the meeting that started on Thursday.

A 14-member coordination committee has also been formed to lead the front. K C Venugopal (Congress), Sharad Pawar (NCP), M K Stalin (DMK), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Abhishek Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Raghav Chadha (AAP), Javed Ali Khan (Samajwadi Party), Lalan Singh (JDU), Hemand Soren (JMM), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (National Conference) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) are on the list. The CPM will decide its member later. No one from the Gandhi family was included in the coordination committee.

The important decisions will be taken by the coordination committee. However, a decision has not been taken on the convener’s post. A decision is soon expected in this regard. The names of Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and NCP President Sharad Pawar are being actively considered.

The meeting also decided to complete the seat-sharing talks as soon as possible with mutual understanding and cooperation. The election slogan of the opposition India Front will be 'Judega Bharat, Jiteega India' (Bharat for all, India for victory). It has been decided to give adequate representation to even the smallest parties in the front. Reports said the meeting also decided on the strategies to be adopted as the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are around the corner.

The opposition also decided to organize rallies against the central government on popular issues. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left the venue without attending the press conference.

NCP's PC Chacko, CPM's Arun Kumar, CPI's Binoy Viswam, RSP's NK Premachandran, Forward Bloc's G Devarajan, Muslim League's KM Khader Moideen and Kerala Congress (M)'s Jose K. Mani are in the 19-member campaign committee.