Nitish Kumar to meet Akhilesh Yadav amid talk of broad coalition against BJP

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will meet Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Monday amid attempts for forging a broad coalition for the 2024 national polls against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power with a full majority since 2014.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Kumar’s deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, was also expected to attend the meeting between leaders of the key parties of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which account for 120 of 543 seats in Lok Sabha.

In 2019, BJP swept the Lok Sabha polls in the two states and won 79 seats. JD(U) has since quit the BJP-led alliance and formed the government in Bihar in alliance with the RJD, Congress, and the Left parties.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said Kumar will meet Akhilesh Yadav at the SP office in Lucknow at 5pm.

JD (U) leader KC Tyagi said Kumar will be in Lucknow as part of efforts to forge a formidable alliance against the BJP. “It has been said that efforts are on for a [non-Congess and non-BJP] third front against the BJP. But this time, Nitish Kumar’s plan is to form a first front against the BJP; one that also includes the Congress. No anti-BJP front is possible without the Congress.”

Tyagi said they would engage with all leaders, who have demonstrated the willingness to take on the BJP, while responding to a question about whether Kumar would also meet Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati. “Has Mayawatiji demonstrated that?” he asked.

He said Kumar’s formula for unity ahead of the 2024 polls is clear and Congress has to be part of the anti-BJP front. “It should be ensured that all regional parties get their due...whether it is Akhilesh Yadav, [West Bengal chief minister] Mamata Banerjee, [her Telangana and Delhi counterparts] KCR [K Chandrashekar Rao] and Arvind Kejriwal, DMK [Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam] or the Left.”

Tyagi said they are against political untouchability of any type.

Kumar, who last week said that he would travel across the country to unite parties opposed to the BJP, was expected to fly to Kolkata for a meeting with Banerjee on Tuesday.

Ahead of Akhilesh Yadav and Kumar’s meeting, Uttar Pradesh’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya attacked the SP, JD (U), and RJD. “Everyone is free to meet anyone. No matter who meets whom, one thing is certain. In the land of Lord Ram and Sita, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, the BJP will win all 120 Lok Sabha seats...people have realised that all these are opportunistic alliances...Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been tirelessly working for the poor and draws strength from them and their blessings,” said Maurya, who is BJP’s prominent Other Backward Class (OBC) leader.

Kumar, Akhilesh Yadav, and Tejashwi Yadav also belong to OBC communities, which are believed to account for over 40% of the populations of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Nitish Kumar is also expected to meet his Odisha counterpart, Naveen Patnaik, in May when a meeting of the constituents of Bihar’s ruling Grand Alliance is due to be held in Delhi.

On April 12, Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav met Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh told HT this month that the three leaders agreed Kumar would meet regional leaders for bringing them on board for a larger opposition front.

Congress leader Harish Rawat met Kumar in Patna last week and shared a photograph of their meeting on Twitter captioned: “Shri Nitish Kumar, the strong voice of opposition unity in 2024...”

The BJP dismissed as futile attempts to stall its electoral juggernaut after the meeting of the Congress, JD(U), and RJD leaders in the national capital.

The BJP’s opponents are banking on the saturation point it has reached in north India. They do not expect it to repeat its performance in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP has also lost its oldest allies including the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Shiromani Akali Dal, and the Telugu Desam Party over the past nine years since 2014.