Nitish-Lalu to meet Sonia today: Here’s all that may come up during the parley
Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) supremo Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav are scheduled to meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Sunday evening.
The talks are going to be the first between Gandhi, and the two political heavyweights from the eastern state, in what is being seen as an attempt to unite the opposition camp ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Citing sources, news agency ANI said the meeting is vital not only to strengthen the opposition camp but for various other reasons as Yadav will seek assurance from Gandhi in the “unity of the opposition to agree for compromises”.
Yadav and Kumar may also seek the Congress chief’s nod on approaching leaders of various regional parties from whom the grand old party has maintained distance in recent years, the ANI report added.
The meeting will be the first official one among the heads of the three parties – Congress, JD(U) and RJD – in over five years, and if the purpose of the same is served, then the campaign to unite the opposition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 contest will see a manifold boost.
According to reports, Yadav and Kumar are likely to approach the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kumar along with several top opposition leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) boss Sharad Pawar and Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, attended an INLD rally in Haryana’s Fatehabad on Sunday afternoon.
The move is seen to challenge the saffron camp at a time when as many as eight former Congress chief ministers have joined the BJP.
During his address, Kumar, who recently cut ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined hands with Yadav’s RJD and Congress to form a new regime in Bihar, said he is not the prime ministerial candidate and later stressed there is no question of a third front. “There should only be one front including Congress, then we can defeat BJP in 2024,” he added.
Kumar’s clarification comes after Union home minister Amit Shah lashed out against the Bihar CM saying he severed ties with the BJP to fulfil his prime ministerial ambitions.