New Delhi: Efforts to cement opposition unity gathered pace with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Thursday meeting Left veterans Sitaram Yechury and D Raja even as the BJP took a dig at the JD(U) leader’s outreach saying “the PM post for 2024 is not vacant”.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will be meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge later this evening, where Rahul Gandhi will also be present.
The leaders are likely to take forward unity talks as more deliberations are expected in the coming days. The Congress will convene a meeting of top opposition leaders very soon.
Kumar left the national capital after meeting with several opposition leaders including Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
After his meeting with Kumar, CPI-M general secretary Yechury said seat adjustments will be made at the state level and indicated that a third front was a possibility.
“Efforts for opposition unity have picked up the pace. An opposition coalition will be formed and seat adjustments will be done at the state level,” the CPI(M) general secretary said.
“In Kerala, the Congress and our party are arch rivals. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not in a fight there,” he said.
He further said that the third front that is going to be formed will always be after the elections.
“But in India, fronts are formed post polls such as United Front in 1996, in 1998 NDA was formed after elections, UPA formed post polls in 2004,” Yechury said.
Yechury later tweeted, “With Bihar CM Shri Nitish Kumar to carry forward the efforts to unite secular democratic parties to safeguard the Indian Republic, Constitution and democracy, severely assaulted by the BJP and Modi government. Defeat the BJP in order to save India and people’s livelihoods.”
The Bihar CM also met CPI general secretary Raja.
“Had a meeting with JD(U) leader and Bihar CM Shri Nitish Kumar to discuss broad issues of opposition unity against RSS-BJP. The country is in turmoil and all sections of society are vocal against BJP misrule. Unity of secular-democratic forces is must to protect our democracy and people,” said Raja in a tweet after the meeting.
Even as the Bihar chief minister stepped up efforts to forge opposition unity and is set to meet some more parties including the BRS and Samajwadi Party, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav evaded a direct reply on whether his party would join an opposition alliance to take on the BJP but said people of the country want change of power.
Responding to reporters query in Indore on whether his party would join the opposition alliance, Yadav said, “This is a big question. What name are you giving to it (the grand alliance)? But I know one thing that people of Uttar Pradesh will unseat the BJP.”
He added that citizens of the country want a change of power.
Last month, after his party’s national executive meeting, the SP chief had said his party would play a key role in the formation of an opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier March 17, Yadav had met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and had said that both Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and SP would stay away from both the Congress and the BJP and indicated possible talks with other regional players ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, the BJP called Kejriwal the “Natwarlal of Indian politics” and said he has given the biggest example of “political conversion” by deciding to ally with the “coalition of corrupts”.
“This is a unity of corruption, politics of division, ambition for position,” said BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala, alleging, “All corrupts are coming together because of this”.
He said he can understand the “political helplessness” of Nitish Kumar to forge an alliance with the Congress and the RJD, but he failed to understand why Kejriwal, a “political pinocchio”, decided to make a U-turn on corruption.
Union minister Giriraj Singh also took a dig at Kumar, saying “the PM post for 2024 is not vacant”.
“Everyone wants to become the Prime Minister. People should know that the Prime Minister’s post for 2024 is not vacant,” he said while addressing a gathering at an event organised here at the East Central Railway zone office at Mahendru ghat.
The Bihar chief minister and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav Wednesday met AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Without naming Kumar, Singh said, “Those indulging in appeasement politics can’t think of providing employment to the people.”
PTI
