PATNA: A day after meeting RJD chief Lalu Yadav, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday dropped ample hints that a meeting of the opposition leaders might be held in Patna after Karnataka assembly polls as many leaders would be busy electioneering there.
“We will definitely hold a meeting and discuss issues linked with the opposition unity to challenge BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Nitish remarked.
“Once Assembly elections are over in Karnataka, a final decision on the venue would be taken. If the opposition leaders reach a consensus to hold a meeting in Patna, it will be held here. If we get a chance to organise the meeting in Patna, it will be a matter of happiness for us,” he said.
Earlier West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also requested Nitish to organise a meeting of all non-BJP parties in the state capital to formulate a strategy for the broader opposition unity when the latter along with his deputy Tejashwi Yadav met her in Kolkata on April 24.
After their meeting, Mamata had told newspersons that she had made just one request to Nitish- “To explore the possibility of holding an all-party meeting in Bihar as Jaya Prakash Narayan ji’s movement had started from the state.”
“If an all-party meeting is held in Bihar, we can then decide where we have to go next,” Banerjee had asserted. Kumar later met Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and had expressed confidence about a broader opposition unity.
Earlier this month, Nitish had also met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D raja.
In the meeting, it was decided that the Bihar CM will hold dialogues with parties like TMC, BRS, and SP which don’t share a good equation with the Congress.
JD(U) leader had exuded confidence that BRS will also be on board with other opposition parties and said BRS has been part of the opposition grouping in Parliament on the Adani row, the Centre’s misuse of agencies, and the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, among others.
A senior JD (U) leader told this newspaper that Nitish’s next stop will be Odisha and Telangana to meet his counterparts and bring together the opposition parties to stitch an anti-BJP alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, the dates of the meetings are yet to be decided, he added.
Nitish had repeatedly emphasised the unity of opposition. He, however, always contended that any such initiative would not be effective unless Congress was taken on board.
Nitish had also been consistent in his approach that there was no scope for a third front but there would be only a main front against the BJP.
It is expected that Nitish’s anti-BJP drive will get a fillip with Lalu back in action after his arrival in the state capital as the latter has a remarkable clout among all opposition leaders.
Lalu returned to the state capital on Friday evening after seven months during which he had undergone a kidney transplant in Singapore.