West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will sound the 2019 Lok Sabha election bugle with a mega rally with nearly every anti-BJP leader in attendance at the Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata on Saturday.

The rally is an attempt by the anti-BJP forces to show a united stand and build a consensus just months ahead of the elections.

Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief, had announced the date of the mega rally late last year and invited many opposition leaders herself. Besides showcasing a federal front, Banerjee also aims to use the rally to project herself as the face of the opposition.

A former prime minister, several current and former chief ministers and stalwarts from various political outfits from across the country arrived in Kolkata on Friday night to attend the rally which will be held at noon today.

Over 20 leaders from more than ten parties are attending the rally and the tea party.

Among them are Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu, DMK head MK Stalin, Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah (both National Conference), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Ajit Singh and Jayant Chowdhury (both RLD), former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang, Hemant Soren of JMM, Patidar movement leader Hardik Patel, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, Babulal Marandi of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, Mizoram opposition leader Pu Lalduhoma, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Reports say that staunch anti-Modi campaigners Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie would also attend the rally.

The notable names missing are of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and UPA president Sonia Gandhi. Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress party leader in Lok Sabha, has been deputed to attend the rally.

The Congress President on his part sent a message to Mamata Banerjee on Friday extending his support to the event hoping that the “show of unity” will send a powerful message of “a united India together” for ideas that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were intent on destroying.

“I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together,” Rahul said in a statement.

In his statement, Rahul Gandhi said “hundreds of millions of Indians” were angry and disappointed over the “false promises and lies peddled by the Modi Government”, and added: “The entire opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas that the BJP and Mr Modi are intent on destroying.”

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Banerjee has arranged for a tea party for her guests at 4 pm on Saturday after the rally gets over. The venue is Soujanya, a new state government guest house, modelled after New Delhi’s Hyderabad House.

The leaders are likely to address the media about their deliberations post tea party.

The Trinamool Congress has claimed that four million people would be present at the Brigade Parade ground to hear the leaders at the ‘United India rally’, which would sound BJP’s death knell, Banerjee said.

Already, lakhs of Trinamool Congress activists and supporters from across the state have turned up in the metropolis, availing of all kinds of transport – via road, railways and waterways.

Apart from bringing thousands of supporters from their respective constituencies, the party leaders have also made special arrangements for their food, lodging, security and other necessary amenities in different parts of the city.

(With inputs from agencies.)