Will be happy to host Opposition meet after Karnataka elections: Nitish
The Bihar CM’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.
Patna: A meeting of top leaders from various opposition and regional parties is likely to be scheduled in Patna after the conclusion of May 10 Karnataka assembly elections, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday.
At the meeting, detailed discussion to chalk out a plan for the opposition unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is expected, Kumar told reporters, a day after he called on Rashtria Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, who returned to the state after seven months.
“We will definitely sit together and discuss the issue pertaining to the formation of an alliance of opposition parties to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said Kumar, the de facto head of the Janata Dal (United).
“Currently, some leaders are busy in the assembly poll (Karnataka). Once it is over, we will finalise the venue of our meeting. If Patna is unanimously decided as the next venue of the meeting of opposition leaders, it will be held here,” he said, adding: “We will be happy to organise this meeting in Patna.”
The Bihar CM’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.
Earlier this month, Kumar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav 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.
Late on Friday evening, Kumar met Lalu Prasad — who had been away for nearly seven months, during which he underwent a kidney transplant in Singapore — at the Patna residence of former CM and Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi, amid speculations that the two veterans of Bihar politics will jointly work to forge a greater opposition alliance.
Kumar did not divulge into the details of the meeting between the two leaders that lasted for less than half an hour.
