E-Paper
‘Key Oppn meet for formation of larger front likely after K’taka govt formation’
Chief minister Nitish Kumar has met leaders of at least half a dozen political parties, including Congress and Trinamool Congress, since early April as part of his effort to have a united opposition to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
PATNA: At least 12 major opposition parties are expected to meet in Patna in the next “eight to ten” days to decide further course of action on the opposition unity, leaders of Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) said on Sunday, a day after the Congress emerged victorious in the Karnataka assembly elections.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar has met leaders of at least half a dozen political parties, including Congress and Trinamool Congress, since early April as part of his effort to have a united opposition to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“Right now, the Congress top leadership is busy with government formation in Karnataka. Once it is done, the dates for the opposition meet will be finalised in consultation with Congress and leaders of other parties,” said a senior RJD leader, in know of the talks going about the opposition meet.
Senior JD(U) leader and finance minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said that the date and venue of the proposed meeting would be decided with partners shortly. “We are in discussion with partners for the proposed meeting to form a bigger grand alliance. The date will be finalised soon,” Chaudhary said.
Another JD (U) leader aware of the developments said the opposition meeting would also discuss a broad outline for the opposition unity and the issues that the opposition will take together. “We already have an agreement with major political parties on the fight for social justice and demanding caste census from the Central government,” he said.
Nitish Kumar has prepared a broad outline of the opposition unity contours, which the party leader quoted above, said would be discussed at the meeting. The contours, include giving a strong regional party preference in Lok Sabha elections over a national party, not having much political sway there, and trying to put one united opposition candidate in as many seats as possible.
The Congress had swept the Karnataka assembly election winning 136 seats while BJP got 65 seats while JD(S) got 19 seats. Several opposition party leaders such as Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Karnataka elections have shown that the PM Narendra Modi-led BJP was not “invincible” and was beatable.
A third leader said the meeting would be a launching pad for a new front and announcement of a convenor of the coalition is likely to be announced at the Patna meeting. The JD (U) is keen that Nitish Kumar is appointed as convenor to spearhead the campaign for uniting all major opposition parties to take on BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Grand Alliance leaders also expected RJD chief Lalu Prasad to attend the meeting, which would be his first major political engagement since his return to Patna after a kidney transplant on April 28. The leaders did not rule out the meeting to take place at Lalu’s home in Patna.
Responding to the decision to have a meeting in Patna, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader said party chief Sharad Pawar is expected to attend the opposition meeting. “Pawar saheb is expected to attend the meeting. Other national leaders of the party like Praful Patel ji will accompany him if more than one leader per party is expected to attend the meeting. The meeting, according to me, is to chalk out the strategy for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections,” said Sunil Tatkare, party MP from Raigad.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that his party will participate in the meeting once the dates for the same are confirmed. Another party leader said that Uddhav Thackeray will be part of the meeting in Delhi. “We will expect clarity on the seat sharing for the Lok Sabha and a common name with the consensus of all constituents to the alliance,” he said.
A Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Yadav said party national president Akhilesh Yadav will take a call on the meeting when the invitation comes. “He has a very good relationship with Nitish ji who also had come to meet Akhilesh ji early this month in Lucknow,” he added.
TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said that the party will “surely” participate in the meeting. However, senior CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim said that since the beginning TMC, Samajwadi Party (SP), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been trying to forge a non-CPI(M), non-Congress alliance.
“They wanted BJD to be part of it but Naveen Patnaik declined. Such an alliance will only give an advantage to the BJP. CPI(M) has opposed the idea. We are always willing to be part of an open anti-BJP platform,” he said.
In the last few weeks, Nitish Kumar’s initiative has gained momentum with Kumar having met several CMs and regional parties , opposed to the BJP.
For the Patna meeting, the ruling Grand Alliance in Bihar is expected to call leaders from Congress, RJD, JD(U), Trinamool Congress, JMM, Samajwadi Party, NCP, Shiv Sena, DMK, AAP, CPI, CPM, CPI-ML( liberation) and few other regional parties who are keen on joining the new front. “West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM, Soren, NCP chief Sharad Pawar are expected to be prominent attendees,” GA leaders said.
