Non-BJP parties meeting triggers war of posters in Patna
The meeting is a part of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s efforts to unite the non-BJP parties even as it was expected to be more of a warm-up for subsequent engagement
The constituents of Bihar’s ruling alliance have put up arches and banners welcoming the leaders arriving in Patna for the “historic meeting” of non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties on Friday, prompting the BJP to respond with posters targeting the participants.
The meeting is a part of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s efforts to unite the non-BJP parties ahead of the 2024 national polls even as it was expected to be more of a warm-up for subsequent engagement.
The BJP’s posters target the parties and leaders attending the meeting as “thugs of India”, “murders of democracy”, and “dynastic” and “corruption brigade”.
Congress, which is among the constituents of Bihar’s ruling alliance, has set up a marquee at the state headquarters where the party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi will address workers before heading for the meeting.
Welcome arches and posters featuring Gandhi and Kharge have been up on the roads leading to the headquarters. “It cannot get bigger than this both for the Congress and the united [national] opposition,” said Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who has been supervising the party’s preparations.
Samajwadi Party’s posters with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s picture call for resolving to “free India from the BJP to end unemployment, violence, and price rise”.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, his West Bengal counterpart, Mamata Banerjee, and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar are among others featuring on posters of the state’s ruling alliance.
The BJP has put up its posters at the party’s office and important locations such as the Patna airport, invoking socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan (JP).
Ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Shivanand Tiwari this week said the BJP was anxious as two of JP’s disciples Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have come together to unite the country and save the Constitution and democratic values just as was done under the socialist leader during the emergency in the 1970s.
The BJP’s posters target JP’s disciples for joining hands with the Congress, saying it imposed the emergency he fought against.
“Those claiming to be disciples of JP are standing with the party that arrested him,” says one poster. “For power, compromise with ideology, corruption, jungle raj, and good governance,” reads another.
BJP state chief Samrat Choudhary said non-BJP parties coming together is a joke and Nitish Kumar seems to have started realising it. “All put together cannot match Prime Minister Narendra Modi even by half. They neither have a leader nor any common ground. Their sole objective is to remove Modi, as they know he is here to stay,” he said. He also tweeted a poster branding the non-BJP leaders “thugs of India”, “dynastic”, and “corrupt”.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has separately distanced itself from some posters that have come up in its name targeting Nitish Kumar. The posters have a picture of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on one side and those of Modi and Nitish Kumar on the other side with the caption: “Beware!!! this is Nitish, Narendra Modi’s friend.”
AAP spokesman Bablu Prakash called the posters an attempt to defame the party and create confusion. The Patna Municipal Corporation later started removing such posters.
Analyst NK Choudhary said poster wars are natural in the election year. “...the BJP wants to highlight the ideological differences [among non-BJP parties]... with attack focused on Nitish Kumar...Kumar was with the BJP for a long time...the fight in Bihar will certainly be a fierce one.”
The meeting was earlier scheduled for June 12 but it was cancelled to ensure that the parties involved sorted out their differences and were willing to make sacrifices and adjustments. No breakthrough was likely at the meeting. Efforts were on to make a declaration of intent.
The participants of the meeting were expected to speak of securing the character of a secular and democratic India and to highlight how the supremacy of the Constitution has been assaulted. A proposal to put up common candidates for at least 400-450 seats against the BJP was expected to be discussed at another meeting. Many of the non-BJP parties have been fighting the Congress in some states.
Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha quit Bihar’s ruling alliance days before the meeting. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has been one of the key interlocutors for the unity, has also decided against attending the meeting.
