NEW DELHI: Just before winding up his four-day visit to the national capital, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar chose to play down the crucial leadership question, saying that the priority is to forge unity among the Opposition parties for the fight against the BJP in the 2024 general election.
Kumar’s response comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sharpened its attack on his efforts to unite the Opposition parties.
After meeting Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar in Delhi on Wednesday, Nitish said his meetings with all the Opposition parties have been encouraging.
For the last few years, Pawar has also been making efforts to bring the Opposition parties together to put up a united fight against the BJP.
“Our first priority is to build unity in the interest of the nation. The question of leadership can be decided later,” Nitish said, adding, “More than a face, a united front is required for the country”.
The JD-U chief also met CPI-M general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and RJD leader Sharad Yadav.
Signalling his allegiance with the Congress, Nitish said he would come to Delhi again to meet Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who is currently on a foreign visit.
“I will come again to meet Sonia Gandhi after she returns. All the leaders I have met in Delhi have thanked me for snapping ties with the NDA,” he said.
Though the BJP has termed Opposition unity a sham, and said that the Bihar chief minister is trying to make his position relevant in Bihar, political observers say that the saffron party is feeling the heat now.
Terming his first visit to the national capital after snapping ties with BJP-led NDA last month as a "political pilgrimage", former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said he is travelling while Bihar has been hit by drought as well overflowing rivers amid daily occurrences of serious crimes like murder.
Kumar, who has generally enjoyed a clean image in his long political and administrative career, is now standing with those accused of grave corruption charges, the BJP leader said, in a reference to allegations against leaders of opposition parties including the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress.
Bihar's longest-serving chief minister has been meeting opposition leaders since arriving here on September 5, claiming that a united non-BJP formation can oust the ruling party from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"He is trying to cobble together these parties but the country has moved beyond such opportunistic alliances after 2014 and will never trust another one," Prasad said.
The country has since 2014 enjoyed stability and decisive leadership under Modi's leadership which has infused hope and new energy in the society while ushering in development, he asserted.
Modi has enhanced India's prestige and the country has left behind the UK to become the fifth largest economy, he added.
The Patna Sahib MP also mocked Kumar over the speculation spurred by his own party colleagues and the ally RJD that he could be the opposition's prime ministerial face, wondering if the likes of Mamata Banerjee, K Chandrasekhar Rao and Arvind Kejriwal will relinquish their claim to the projection.
"He is the last one in the queue," Prasad said.
The BJP leader also ridiculed Kumar's claim that a united opposition can reduce the BJP to a 50-seat tally in Lok Sabha and said he cannot object to someone daydreaming when asked about a JD(U) press release quoting Kumar as saying that the BJP will not get more than 50 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha seats if opposition parties unite.
Kumar had later clarified that he would not comment on numbers but insisted that the BJP will be ousted from power if the opposition unites.
Prasad also noted how the Congress had brought down previous coalition governments headed by Chandra Shekhar, Deve Gowda and I K Gujral.
However, a senior BJP leader told this newspaper that the Opposition unity will crumble in 2024 as the question will be ‘Modi vs who’.
Describing Nitish’s Delhi visit as a successful one, JD-U sources said that though there are contradictions among some Opposition parties, Nitish has taken the first step towards forging common ground for a united front.
According to sources, Nitish is likely to meet Shiv Sena chief and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, and Odisha Chief Minister Navin Patnaik to firm Opposition unity.
During his trip to Delhi, Nitish also met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi; CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury; CPI general secretary D Raja; Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal; INLD supremo OP Chautala; and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav.
To a question about the possibility of a non-BJP and non-Congress "third front", which was experimented with in the past, he said "If a front has to be made, it will be the main front, not the third front.
"An understanding between the Congress, the Left, parties with socialist backgrounds and others will be in the national interest. If all non-BJP parties in various states come together, then a good atmosphere will emerge in the country."
In a swipe at the BJP, he alleged it has been running a one-sided agenda and its efforts are mostly confined to stoking tensions in society.
Little work has been done by this government but it puts a lot of emphasis on propaganda and publicity, he said referring to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led dispensation.
Kumar, who first joined hands with the BJP during the Vajpayee-Advani era in 1996, compared the work done by the Atal Bihar Vajpayee-led government with that of the Modi dispensation.
The Bihar chief minister also slammed his former colleague and political strategist Prashant Kishor, who has said that Kumar's decision to switch alliance will have a regional and not national impact, and called him a "publicity expert".
Does he know how much work has been done since 2005, he wondered and suggested that Kishor may be working to help the BJP covertly.
"'His statements have no meaning," he said.
After holding talks with Pawar, the JD(U) leader said it is important for the opposition parties to come together first and a decision on its leadership can be taken later.
He reiterated that he is not in contention for it.
The JD(U) leader said the time was ripe to present an alternative to the BJP which, he alleged, was "not doing anything for the people".
"Both Pawar and I are keen to unite opposition forces who are not with the BJP. A leader of the alliance can be decided later. It is important to come together first," Kumar told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with the NCP supremo.
Kumar has been meeting opposition leaders during his three-day visit to the national capital in a bid to bring them on one platform to take on the BJP.
The Bihar chief minister said he would come to Delhi again to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has been travelling abroad for personal reasons.
"I have met all the people in Delhi and many of them thanked me for coming out of the NDA.
Everyone wishes that there should be unity in every state and such an atmosphere will be created in the country in the coming days," Kumar said after meeting CPI(ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharyya, one of his oldest allies.
The JD(U) leader said that everyone is talking about opposition unity and "more than a face, a united front was required for the country''.
"Everyone realises that those who have the power in their hands, they are creating damage everywhere in the country," he added.
There are 16 MLAs of Left parties in the Bihar Assembly supporting the Nitish government from outside, these include 12 of CPI(ML), two each of CPI and CPM.
After meeting with CPI(ML) General Secretary, Kumar said, "Seven political parties united in Bihar and we are running the government together, while on the other side there is only BJP."
''We had a discussion on how to work for the development of the state with consensus, how to uplift every section of the society and the work has to be done for the welfare of people."
Bhattacharya said they discussed how a united opposition should work towards stopping the BJP's "bulldozer raj" in the country.
"It is good that Nitishji is trying to get the Opposition together. The way that the BJP is trying to make India a one-party nation, we will have to fight together as one to thwart BJP's attempt to undermine democracy," said Bhattacharya.
Though Nitish Kumar has constantly tried to play down the buzz about his prime ministerial bid, there has been a clamour within his party that Kumar is the most appropriate candidate to take on the mantle of the opposition leadership due to his vast experience and clean image.
Asked about his aspirations to become prime minister, Kumar had said on Tuesday, "This is wrong. I am not a claimant for the post, nor am I desirous of it."
(With PTI Inputs)