Oppn leaders converge at INLD rally ‘to challenge Delhi Sultanate’; Nitish, Pawar in attendance

Several top opposition leaders, including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, congregated for a grand rally of the INLD organised in Haryana’s Fatehabad on Sunday.

Addressing the rally, JDU leader KC Tyagi said the Bihar CM has come from Patna to challenge Delhi Sultanate at a time when eight former Congress CMs have joined the BJP. He said Kumar has no fear of the ED, income tax and other agencies. Stating that he is not the PM candidate, Kumar later said there is no question of a third Front, there should be one front, including the Congress and only then the BJP can be defeated in 2024.

The rally is being held to mark the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister and INLD founder Devi Lal.

Bihar deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena also attended the rally being held in a show of opposition unity.

Badal said the INLD and SAD are real brothers, adding the rights of farmers’ can be saved by the leaders present at the rally, as he called all the parties to unite to uproot the BJP.

The coming together of so many regional satraps is seen as part of efforts to forge opposition unity. Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad are likely to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi after the rally to take the process forward.

Earlier, Tyagi, a veteran socialist leader, said it will be a historic meeting that will mark the consolidation of like-minded forces against the ruling BJP in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.