PATNA: Hinting that all is not well in the opposition bloc ‘INDIA’, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday alleged there was no progress on issues like seat-sharing as Congress was busy with the upcoming assembly elections to the five states. Addressing a rally, ‘BJP Hatao Desh Bachao,’ organised by CPI in Patna, Nitish blamed the Congress for the lack of progress in the Opposition’s preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He said the Congress was given the role of leading the Opposition alliance against the BJP ahead of the general polls. However, the grand old party appears to have been preoccupied with assembly elections in the five states, he told the gathering.
In a guarded language, the JD(U) leader, who had played a key role in bringing non-BJP parties together to give a befitting answer to BJP in the upcoming polls, said, “We have been talking to them, pushing them forward in ‘INDIA’ alliance. But, of late, there has not been much progress on that front.”
He, however, hastened to add that the constituents of Opposition ‘INDIA’ bloc would meet again to decide the future course of action after the assembly elections in five states. “The constituents of ‘INDIA’ would sit again after the assembly elections to decide its future course of action,” he added.
He said that he had taken the initiative to bring all opposition parties on a single platform to fight against BJP in the general elections. He also accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to change the history of the country.
In February, Nitish had advised Congress not to rest on its laurels after the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and use the momentum to forge an alliance of the opposition parties at the national convention of CPI (ML).
Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid was also present on the occasion.
‘State polls important, fighting them seriously’
Responding to Nitish Kumar’s remarks, Congress stressed the importance of state elections and asserted it was fighting them “seriously”. The party asserted that the INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state-specific. “States make up the country, so the five state elections are important,” Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh told media at the AICC headquarters in Delhi. “Kumar said the Congress is busy with state elections and then it will call a meeting. Before too, at the Congress office in Patna, Lalu Prasad had come and said that INDIA bloc’s first rally will be in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan,” he said.