The stage for a united opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election was set in Patna on Saturday at the conventions of the CPI(ML) as Bihar chief minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said the Congress should take a quick decision and fight together. “If they take my suggestion and fight together, they (BJP) will go below 100 seats, but if they don’t take my suggestion, you know what will happen,” Nitish Kumar who repeatedly dismissed his ambition for the PM chair said.
On part of Congress, senior leader Salman Khurshid was present. He said the sentiments are shared by Congress too. “But the situation is akin to lovers taking their time to decide who should say I love you first…it happens that sometimes an inexperienced lover is uninhibited enough to make the first move,” Khurshid said.
Nitish Kumar who got the Congress’s support to walk out of his alliance with the NDA and to become the chief minister of the Grand alliance in the state said the Congress must not rest on its laurels and should use the momentum gained during Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
In his speech, Nitish Kumar said the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are the only opportunity to get rid of “these people (the BJP)”. He said his exit from the NDA last year had brought the curtains down on the BJP’s attempts to expand its footprint at the state level. Something similar should be done at the national level, Nitish Kumar said.
There have been no formal talks on united opposition including the Congress as there is no unanimity on this issue. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has been pitching for a third front minus the Congress as his fight is against both BJP and the Congress. His Telangana Rashtra Samithi has gone national and become Bharat Rashtra Samithi with eyes on the 2014 elections.