New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is scheduled to meet CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI leader D Raja in Delhi Tuesday. The Janata Dal (United) leader arrived in the national capital Monday. Nitish Kumar, who snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last month, said Sunday his only goal is to work for uniting the Opposition to unseat the saffron party from power at the Centre.
Kumar’s visit to Delhi comes amidst the buzz within the JD(U) that he may emerge as the Opposition’s prime ministerial face in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Yechury had hit out at Kumar in 2017 when the JD(U) chief had parted ways with the grand alliance, accusing the Bihar chief minister of ‘political opportunism’.
When Kumar dumped the BJP last month, Yechury had said the saffron party has got a ‘taste of its own medicine’, referring to the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra after the saffron party backed Shiv Sena rebels.
Asked about the political future of Nitish Kumar, Yechury, a key Opposition strategist, had said it was ‘too early’ to comment on it.
The CPI (M) leader had, however, welcomed the ‘formation of a secular Mahagathbandhan government’ in Bihar during his meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav last month.
After being sworn-in as Kumar’s deputy, Yadav met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as well as Yechury and Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said it has decided to maintain a distance from the JD(U) since there has been no official communication to the party from the ‘Mahagathbandan’.
Sources in the Mamata Banerjee-led party here said the TMC believes that regional parties should fight and defeat the BJP in their respective regions and not come to Delhi for support.
Earlier in the day Kumar met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The two leaders are learnt to have discussed the current political situation in the country and ways to ensure Opposition unity. Kumar also met Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Kumaraswamy at the latter’s residence.
The meeting between Rahul and Kumar at the former Congress chief’s residence lasted almost an hour. Kumar was accompanied by Bihar Water Resources Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha.
This is the first meeting between Rahul and Kumar since the latter walked out of the NDA in Bihar and formed a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government with RJD, Congress and outside support of the Left.