PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is expected to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday for holding talks relating to forging a broader opposition front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Sources claimed that Nitish along with JD (U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh would leave for Lucknow by a special plane to meet Akhilesh.
Similarly, he is also likely to meet Mamata in Kolkata in his bid to forge an alliance of opposition parties.
A senior JD(U) leader said that Nitish will also meet Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik soon.
“The date of the meeting with Patnaik is yet to be finalised,” he said.
On the other hand, Nitish is looking confident about the opposition unity with Congress on board after his recent ‘meaningful’ discussions with the Opposition leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja in New Delhi.
From the meetings, it emanated that Nitish will hold discussions with leaders of various regional parties like TMC, Samajwadi Party, K Chandrashekar Rao’s BRS, Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, and Kejriwal’s AAP, BJD and YSRCP.
It has also been decided to field a single opposition candidate against the BJP in the 2024 election to improve the chances of winning.
It is interesting that Nitish will be meeting the West Bengal Chief Minister even as Mamata’s outbursts against Congress following the TMC defeat in the Sagardighi by-election.
Banerjee had termed the victory of the Congress at Sagardighi by-elections as "immoral", alleging that the Congress, besides the CPI (M), had entered into an understanding with the BJP to defeat her party in the election.
Despite Congress and TMC having bitter verbal duels in the past, Nitish still hopes of taking TMC on board by using his persuasive skills.
“Nitish has a good relationship with both Congress and TMC and in such a situation, he can definitely succeed in at least creating a workable relationship between both parties in view of the huge electoral challenge likely to be posed by the BJP election once again in the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” a political analyst added.
Nitish has a long experience working with leaders of both Janata Parivar and also with former NDA allies such as TDP and TMC.
In such a situation, Nitish can make valuable contributions in the drive to bring as many opposition parties on one platform before the next parliamentary election.
On the other hand, Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had met with Mamata in Kolkata for holding discussions on creating a third front comprising non-BJP and non-Congress parties.
It is in complete contrast to Nitish`s repeated emphasis on taking Congress on board for countering BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
His oft-repeated contention is that there will be only the main front comprising Congress against BJP.
Later, Mamata had also gone to Odisha and held a meeting with her counterpart Naveen Patnaik. Similarly, JD (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy had met with Mamata in Kolkata followed by the TMC leader`s call to Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin.
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