Leaders of at least 24 Opposition parties, including Sonia Gandhi, RahulGandhi and Mamata Banerjee, will participate in a meeting here for two days from Monday with the sole aim of forging an anti-BJP alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.

The brainstorming aimed at sealing an Opposition front to take on the might of the BJP would centre around preliminary discussions on understanding each other’s outlook and demands in the partnership, said a state Congress source.

The first meeting held in Patna on June 23 had done the spadework before deciding to hold the follow-up discussions in Shimla till inclement weather forced the meet to be shifted to Bangalore.

Congress leaders in Karnataka feel that the presence of Sonia would make a huge difference in ironing out long-standing differences of opinion among the parties. Her sobering influence, which has time and again proven helpful within and outside the Congress, is being banked upon as a clincher.

A state Congress functionary said there was no clear agenda for the discussions as the leaders would get time to express their opinions and make their suggestions.

The Congress’s opposition to an ordinance that robbed the Delhi government of its control of its bureaucrats has also come in handy to calm down the Aam Aadmi Party, which had threatened to walk out of the initiative.

Although the conclave is scheduled as a two-day event, Congress sources said the business that matters would start only from Monday evening when Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah is scheduled to host the leaders for a dinner.

Almost all Opposition party heads, barring Mamata who is nursing a knee injury, are expected to dine and discuss their future course of action at a luxury hotel on Monday evening before a daylong closed-door session on Tuesday.

A joint media conference is likely to be held at the culmination of Tuesday’s discussions when the parties could name a convener as a step ahead of a formal naming of the alliance that would take on the BJP-led NDA in the general elections.

Leaders of the Indian Union Muslim League, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Kongu Desa Makkal Katchi, Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Apna Dal (K) and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchhi who were not part of the Patna conclave are scheduled to attend the Bangalore meeting.

The Patna meeting hosted by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and hisJanata Dal (United) had seen 32 Opposition leaders, including six chief ministers, participating in the first such initiative to forge an anti-BJP alliance.

Leaders of the Congress, Tamil Nadu’s ruling David Munnetra Kazhagam, Trinamul Congress, AAP, RJD, JDU, CPM, CPI, CPI (ML-L), Samajwadi Party, PDP, National Conference, Shiv Sena (UBT) and JMM paved the way for the second edition of the Opposition deliberations.