New Delhi/Mumbai, Aug 23 (IANS): A team of senior Congress leaders are holding a meeting with the party leaders in Mumbai to discuss the preparations of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance's (INDIA) third meeting scheduled on August 31 and September 1.

From Congress, senior leaders like Gurdeep Singh Sappal, Syed Naseer Hussain arrived in Mumbai to hold a meeting with the party leaders to discuss the preparations of the INDIA alliance's third meeting.

The party sources said that the meeting is to take stock of the preparation for the meeting.

The third meeting of the bloc is being hosted jointly by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP's Sharad Pawar faction, with support from the Congress -- the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The MVA constituents had been holding parleys to schedule the meeting.

The third meeting is said to be crucial as several committees will be formed for coordination as well as convenor would be decided.

The opposition parties had held two back-to-back meetings within a month -- first on June 23 in Bihar’s Patna and second on July 18-19 in Karnataka’s Bengaluru -- to bring the like-minded parties together ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

During the Bengaluru’s meeting, the name of INDIA for the opposition bloc was finalised.

The Bengaluru meeting was attended by leaders of 26 parties, including leaders like Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and others.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and several others.