PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said the Congress should take a call at the earliest on forging an alliance of opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The senior Janata Dal (United) leader added that the Congress must not rest on its laurels and make use of the momentum gained during Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in forging a coalition of parties opposed to the BJP.
“I want you people (Congress) to take a quick decision. If you take my suggestion and fight together, they (BJP) will go below 100 seats, but if you don’t take my suggestion, you know what will happen,” Kumar said.
He was speaking at the 11th general convention of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation or CPI-ML, which has extended an outside support to the Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government. Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya also attended the convention.
“I would like to tell my friends in the Congress that the (Bharat Jodo) Yatra went very well. But they must not stop at that,” said Kumar, turning towards Khurshid. “I am waiting for the nod from the Congress to proceed as other parties are willing to come together. The Congress must decide the parties it wants to align with.”
Kumar also used the occasion to target the BJP-led dispensation. “They (BJP leaders) are doing nothing for the people. They are indulging in self-praise and distorting history,” he said. “We (opposition parties) want to take the country forward and for that opposition unity is key.”
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav echoed similar views as the CM, saying that all opposition parties must come together and draw the action plan to take on the BJP and its allies. “The Congress must decide on its role, as all the opposition parties are ready in the larger interest of the country,” Yadav said, asking the grand old party to work hard on seats where it is in direct contest with the BJP.
Senior Congress leader Salman Kurshid said he would take the message to the party high command and, if required, advocate for it. Referring to Nitish Kumar’s address, Khurshid said, “You raised many points, some openly and some discreetly. As far as my understanding goes, the Congress is thinking likewise.”
Khurshid called upon Kumar to pursue the “Bihar model” against the BJP’s “hate model”.
Dipankar Bhattacharya said a grand unity of the opposition parties was required to wage a “decisive struggle against attack on the constitution and democracy”.
However, reacting to the chief minister’s assertion that he would take responsibility of uniting the opposition, the Bihar BJP said it showed Kumar was under tremendous pressure from the RJD to vacate the CM’s position. “Kumar wants the Congress by his side to pre-empt any coop against him in the government,” said Nikhil Anand, BJP state spokesperson.
