KCR’s visits Bihar to boost Opposition alliance bid ahead of JD(U) meet

|HT|

Ahead of the Janata Dal (United)’s national executive and council meetings, the visit of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao to Bihar and his meeting with counterpart Nitish Kumar is viewed as a politically significant step to build a larger Opposition alliance in the country ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

KCR is likely to also meet Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

Though Rao is officially coming to give financial assistance to the families of Indian soldiers killed in clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in 2020, the visit has acquired political significance as it coincides with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) losing power in Bihar.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) switched sides with seven parties, including the RJD, as part of the ‘grand alliance’ (Mahagathbandhan) in early August to work for larger pan-India Opposition.

KCR, who will be on his first visit to Bihar since becoming CM in 2014, has himself been vocal about a unified opposition to take on the BJP and even gave a call for ‘BJP-mukt Bharat’ recently, on the lines of ‘RSS-mukt Bharat’ call given by Kumar ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In January this year, Tejashwi Yadav and three other RJD leaders went to Telangana to meet KCR to prepare the ground for a larger opposition alliance.

“The talks of Opposition unity are palpable like never before and that is what Nitish Kumar will strive to do. That is the larger objective. I am in Delhi and not aware of the meeting, but if the two CMs meet, there is nothing unusual about it,” said JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan, alias Lalan Singh.

On whether Kumar’s name will be proposed as the prime ministerial candidate for 2024 at the national executive meeting, Singh said it was neither the party’s official stand, nor has Kumar ever spoken about it.

“He has said that his main effort is to unite all opposition parties from various regions to achieve the larger objective. It is the sentiments of the party workers that get manifested through posters, as everyone knows he has everything that is required to be a PM, but he is not a candidate for the post. He is interested in bringing all regional parties opposed to the BJP under one umbrella and the process started with Bihar, where BJP has no ally and all the seven parties are in the ‘grand alliance’. The move for a greater Opposition alliance will gather momentum after the national executive meeting,” he added.

JD(U) will hold its national executive and national council meetings in Patna on September 3-4. It will be the first meeting since the party severed ties with the BJP and joined hands with the RJD-led Opposition to form the government. It is expected that the party would endorse Kumar’s name to spearhead the Opposition campaign.

The party’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha has categorically stated that Kumar could prove to be the best PM if given the opportunity.

“Wherever BJP is not in power, it engages in a slugfest with the ruling dispensation and Rao is himself feeling it. He has been talking about the need for a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front and he worked for that, meeting leaders and discussing the path ahead. With new alignments in Bihar, there is a new hope for the Opposition parties engaged in slugfest with the BJP in their respective regions. Bihar has reignited that self-belief,” said a senior JD(U) leader.

RJD MP Manoj Jha said KCR meeting Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi was nothing extraordinary. “KCR and Laluji are old friends. And when two stalwarts meet, it is natural that the discussion will revolve around a whole range of issues, including challenging times the country is passing through. The country needs all parties opposing the BJP to come together and Bihar has certainly shown the way. All that is required is to maintain the momentum and spread out to different parts of the country. These are early days yet, but the good thing is that the wheel has started moving in the right direction and we are hopeful several parties will be on board,” he said.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)