Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Thursday that he will start touring other states to unite the Opposition after the upcoming budget session of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
His words came at the beginning of his statewide ‘Samadhan Yatra’ (Solution tour) from a village in Bagaha in West Champaran district to take stock of the implementation of development schemes and the problems being faced by the people.
“First let me complete this yatra. This will get over around February 8. Then there is the House (budget session of the legislature). I will attend it and then embark on it,” Nitish told reporters when asked by reporters about his plans to venture out across the country to unite the Opposition against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He did not put a date to his proposed tours across the country, but it could begin after March.
The budget session of the Bihar legislature starts in the second half of February and continues till the end of March.
BJP Rajya Sabha member and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi attacked Nitish over his countrywide tour plan.
“Nitish is buying a jet aircraft and a helicopter for Rs 250 crore for use in this tour of the nation. Nobody will pay any attention to him in other states. On the one hand, he talks about Bihar being a poor state and on the other he is spending money on purchasing jets. He is not holding a public meeting in Bihar during his current yatra due to the fear of public protest,” he said.
Nitish broke away from the NDA in August last year and joined the Grand Alliance to form a new government in Bihar. He has been rooting for a broad-based Opposition unity since then.
He moved to Delhi in September and met several leaders of non-BJP parties in September, including Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Though all the non-NDA leaders concurred with him on the need for Opposition unity, they gave a lukewarm response to it.