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'Fever, not unrest': Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on missing INDIA bloc meeting
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was among at least three non-Congress CMs who decided to skip Wednesday’s opposition INDIA bloc meeting.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday dismissed the reports of his refusal to join the hurriedly called December 6 meeting of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) leaders, saying he was down with a fever and would definitely attend the next meeting.
Dismissing speculations of unrest in the bloc, Kumar said, “There were murmurs that I won't attend it (INDIA alliance's meeting). This is nonsense, I had a fever at that time. Whenever the next (meeting) would be held, I would definitely go.”
The Congress's plan to swiftly convene a meeting of the INDIA alliance faced a setback on Tuesday as at least three non-Congress chief ministers, including Nitish Kumar, and a former CM declined to participate.
INDIA leaders’ meet deferred as unrest grows among allies
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, along with his Jharkhand and West Bengal counterparts, and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav, chose to skip the Opposition alliance meeting. Later in the day, the Congress announced that a coordination meeting of parliamentary party leaders of the 28-party grouping will be held instead on Wednesday.
“A coordination meeting of parliamentary party leaders of INDIA alliance will be held at 6 pm on December 6th, 2023 at the residence of Congress President Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge. Thereafter meeting of Party Presidents/ Heads of the India Alliance will be scheduled in third week of December at a date convenient to all,” tweeted Gurdeep Sappal, a member of the INDIA coordination committee.
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, who had pulled no punches on Congress over seat-sharing in Madhya Pradesh polls, also seemed to have adopted a conciliatory tone. Yadav on Tuesday asserted that the results of the recently concluded Assembly polls in states would further strengthen the INDIA bloc while also hitting out at the Congress over the outcome.
speaking at a television news channel’s event in Lucknow, he said: “Results of the recently concluded polls would only strengthen and consolidate the INDIA alliance. And this should worry the BJP. The public has been in a mood to bring in change. There would have been a change of power in a state had the Congress not behaved the way it did there.”
