New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was on Saturday named as the chairperson of the Opposition-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) alliance during a virtual meeting attended by the leaders of 14 Opposition parties. Meanwhile, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar turned down his appointment as the convenor saying he would only accept the role when all parties reach a consensus.

The meeting was attended by Congress leaders, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Delhi chief minsiter Arvind Kejriwal, among various other top leaders of parties of the opposition INDIA bloc.

A majority of the constituents of the INDIA alliance have backed Kumar as convenor of the INDIA alliance and Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition grouping in the virtual meeting held on Saturday, HT has learnt.

However, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who skipped the meeting, opposed the decision to appoint Kumar as the chief convenor that led the alliance partners to keep the decision under wraps for now until she comes on board.

Kumar has said that he never aspired for any post.

The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) representatives, and the the party president, Lalan Singh, also seem upset with the decision. Banerjee had refused to attend the meeting as she said that she needed to be informed much earlier instead of just 16 hours before.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, whose team had also travelled to Delhi the previous day, also did not attend the meet. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray also skipped the virtual meeting.

The meeting was held to review seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, participation in Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and other issues.

Congress leader Rahul Rahul Gandhi informed the alliance partners that he was starting his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on Monday and wanted all other parties to participate in their states.

Following the seat-sharing talks, a discussion on the appointment of a chairperson and a convenor was held in which Kharge’s name was proposed for the position of opposition bloc’s chief and Kumar as the convenor.

As Kumar expressed his reservations, other members discussed whether the announcement should be made immediately. It was then pointed out that it would not be appropriate as both Banerjee and Yadav have remained absent and all 14 members must agree to the decision.

An angry Lalan Singh told the meeting that the JD-U was opposed to this appointment so the Congress should choose someone else. One person suggested that the announcement today could be limited to just Kharge’s appointment.

At least two leaders present in the meeting confirmed to HT that Kejriwal and Pawar have been asked to convince Banerjee to give her consent to appoint Kumar as the convenor of the opposition.

Meanwhile, Kumar’s allies in Bihar, Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, would convince the chief minister to accept the post of INDIA bloc’s convenor.

The members agreed that they would inform each other of the outcomes of these two assignments – getting Kumar to accept the convenor position and Bannerji to on board with the decision.