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Nitish meets Rahul in Delhi, says ‘opposition unity must for a good atmosphere’
A number of topics were discussed in the first meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar after the latter walked out of the NDA to form a government in Bihar with the RJD, Congress and the Left as allies, which included the 2024 general polls and the need to bring like-minded parties together.
A “good atmosphere” will be created if opposition parties unite, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday after meeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, clarifying once again that he has no ambition to become Prime Minister.
“If the opposition will get united, then a good atmosphere will be created,” ANI news agency quoted Kumar as saying. “I have no desire and no aspiration (to become Prime Minister).”
A number of topics were discussed in the first meeting between Gandhi and Kumar after the latter walked out of the National Democratic Alliance to form a government in Bihar with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left as allies, Congress functionaries said, which included the 2024 general election and the need to bring like-minded parties together.
Kumar also met with former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamyand is scheduled to meet his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and a number of key opposition leaders on Tuesday.
Kumar’s meeting with Gandhi comes a day after the latter announced at a rally that the Congress and other opposition parties would together defeat the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party..
Kumar’s announcement that he has no prime ministerial ambition echoed a common stand of many opposition leaders, including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. He also met Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Patna last week, but Kumar’s meeting with Gandhi made it clear that unlike Rao, the Bihar chief minister wants the Congress and other parties to come together.
Both leaders have agreed that “concrete discussions” will continue, according to Congress leaders who declined to be named.
The Trinamool Congress, the second-largest opposition party in Parliament after the Congress, maintains that a pan-India pact is not feasible. “We do not see a maha gathbandan across India. And we certainly don’t need a prime ministerial face,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien said on Monday. “The goal is to remove BJP democratically.”
Kumar’s Delhi’s visit comes two days after he vowed to confine the BJP to 50 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He is currently heading a seven-party coalition that includes Congress and the Left. Kumar is likely to receive support from Lalu Prasad, who is known to share excellent personal equation with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
National JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, Bihar’s water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha and building construction department minister Ashok Choudhary are accompanying Kumar on his Delhi visit.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi ridiculed Kumar’s call for dislodging the BJP from power. “Several leaders like NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) chief Sharad Pawar and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee have miserably failed in their bid to counter the popularity of Narendra Modi. Kumar, too, will meet the same fate,” said the Rajya Sabha member who has served as deputy chief minister of Bihar for more than a decade.
