KOLKATA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Monday. They stressed that opposition parties need to shed their egos to unite against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“We have no personal ego. We will fight together collectively. The BJP has become a big hero with lies and fake videos...I want BJP to become zero,” said Mamata in a joint press conference post the meeting.
“I have made one request to Nitish Kumar. Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement started from Bihar. If we can have an all-party meeting in the neighbouring state, we can decide our next course of action. But before that, we have to deliver a message that we are united,” said Mamata.
"Nitish has already started holding talks with the different opposition parties. I am also holding similar discussions with others. In the coming days we will move together," she added.
Echoing her, Nitish Kumar said that all the anti-BJP opposition parties will have to unite before the 2024 elections. "Let us all sit together and discuss how to move ahead in the coming days. We had an extremely fruitful discussion and we have agreed that all will have to get united and move together," he said.
Slamming the BJP, Kumar said, "Nothing is being done for India's development, those ruling are only interested in their own advertisement."
The 30 minutes-long meeting between the two leaders at state secretariat Nabanna, which was also attended by Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, was described as "positive".
While details of the discussion were scanty with the leaders preferring to speak on the broader consensus, sources said the two sides used the meeting to figure out how they would proceed in sewing together a coalition that would be workable ahead of the elections.
The Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress party chief, however, did not make it clear whether the Congress will be part of the united force of opposition parties. In the recent past, she has preferred to maintain a distance whenever the Congress called for a unity of opposition parties under the leadership of the grand old party.
On several occasions, she has also alleged that the Congress failed to protect its own base even after winning elections in several states.
Mamata, last week, spoke to her counterpart MK Stalin over phone and expressed her solidarity in the ongoing tussle between the Tamil Nadu government and governor RN Ravi.
On the other hand, Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar has been actively interacting with the top party leaders, including national president Mallikarjun Kharge.
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(With inputs from Express News Service & PTI, IANS)