E-Paper
Key Opposition meet likely in Bihar after Karnataka polls
Bihar CM’s initiative to get all opposition parties to fight against BJP in the general elections has evoked positive response from several regional satraps.
Top leaders from various regional parties, and also Congress, are likely to gather in Bihar on the invitation of chief minister Nitish Kumar to chalk out a plan for the opposition unity against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, people familiar with the development said on Thursday.
The meeting, modalities of which are yet to be finalised, is likely to be scheduled after the conclusion of the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka, a senior functionary from Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) said.
The Bihar chief minister’s initiative to get all opposition parties on board to project a unified fight against the ruling BJP in the next year’s general elections has evoked positive response from several regional satraps, the functionary added.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh said the gathering of opposition leaders in the state would be a significant step forward to make a united bid for change of government at the Centre. “This is the need of the hour and the way opposition parties have responded to Nitish Kumar’s call augurs well. Nitish Kumar has been reaching out to them,” Singh said. “After the crucial Karnataka elections, things will gather momentum.”
Read: Nitish, Mamata, Akhilesh make a push for Opposition unity ahead of 2024 polls
Though the BJP has been terming “improbable” an opposition alliance, Kumar has been negotiating with different political parties ever since he severed ties with the BJP and formed the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government in Bihar in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and smaller partners, including the Communist parties.
Recently, Kumar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Bannerjee. Earlier, the Bihar chief minister had met Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, and announced that as part of his outreach, he would meet more leaders.
Political observers, however, maintain it would not be easy to get all opposition parties together, as similar attempts were being made by other regional players, too, like Telangana chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekar Rao and Tamil Nadu CM and DMK chief MK Stalin.
During her meeting with the Bihar chief minister and his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of the RJD, in Kolkata earlier this week, Mamata Banerjee had invoked the “anti-Emergency” movement of 1970s led by socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan. She had asked Nitish Kumar to host a meeting of all opposition parties in his home state to give shape to a united Opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP.
“I have made just one request to Nitish Kumar. Jayaprakash ji’s movement started from Bihar. If we hold an all-party meeting in Bihar, we can then decide where we have to go next. We have to give a message that we are all united. I want BJP to become zero,” she had said.
The JD(U) chief said what Banerjee said would happen in Bihar. “We will sit and discuss how and when to organise it. Due to Karnataka elections, political parties are engaged there. It will happen sooner than later. All the political parties want to move ahead with a plan and the meeting will give it shape,” Lalan Singh added.
Jayprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, led the movement to bring all opposition political parties under one umbrella against then prime minister Indira Gandhi-led Congress.
An important cog in the Opposition wheel, RJD chief and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad is also likely to be in the state after over nine months. Earlier this month, Nitish Kumar had also called on Prasad, following which the Opposition unity initiative gathered momentum. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had also met Prasad.
“Opposition unity is a key factor for 2024 elections and Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad will be anchors for it. The two are seasoned politicians and have shown what they can do, as they did in 2015 in Bihar. Now that needs to replicated cross the country. All parties coming together for a larger cause is not the demand of today’s politics, but of the country’s people for saving democracy and democratic values…,” said RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha.
Read: Prashant Kishor's ‘langdi sarkar’ dig at Nitish Kumar over opposition unity bid
The BJP, however, dismissed Nitish Kumar’s bid to unite the opposition, calling it “daydreaming”. “Nitish Kumar should first focus on saving Bihar form slipping into jungle raj. He is on the last leg of his political journey and he has nothing to lose and so is daydreaming of bringing family-run parties with contrasting ideologies under one roof. He wanted to be the PM, now he wants to be the king-maker. Let’s see where he ends up,” said BJP spokesperson and general secretary of party’s OBC Morcha Nikhil Anand. “A party that cannot win even five seats on its own can only talk so big. Let the Opposition first have a PM candidate against Narendra Modi, who is the only people’s choice at the moment.”
Hitting back, JD(U) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar said the BJP was getting jittery due to the huge response Nitish Kumar’s initiative has evoked. “The people of Bihar have shown the BJP its place time and again, and they will do it again. Now, time has come to administer the same medicine to the BJP at the national level and Nitish Kumar knows how to do it,” he added.
