Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on the second day of his visit to Delhi continued to meet leaders of non-NDA parties as part of efforts to forge broad-based Opposition unity against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Nitish met CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D. Raja, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala on Tuesday.
He had met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday. Nitish and his Janata Dal United (JDU) had walked out of the NDA on August 9 to join hands with the Grand Alliance of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, CPI-ML, CPI, CPM and Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular.
Nitish’s move left the BJP alone in the state and attracted praise from Opposition leaders from all over the country. He immediately declared his intention to work for similar unity across the country. He started by meeting Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in Patna a week ago and followed it up with the three-day Delhi visit. Yechury, who met Nitish at the CPM headquarters in Delhi, said: “He (Nitish) spoke of his commitment to unite the secular democratic Opposition to save India’s Constitution, safeguard the Indian Republic, and to provide an equal place to all the citizens. This echoes with us and all the Indian patriots.”
The Bihar chief minister’s next stop was the CPI headquarters where he met Raja.
“We welcomed Nitish ji and the way he broke up with the BJP to join the secular democratic forces — Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) — in Bihar. However, the development is not confined to Bihar only. It has a huge impact on the political course of the country. We are of the view that time has come for all secular, democratic parties — the Left parties, the regional parties — all must come together and fight unitedly in order to defeat the BJP in the interest of the country and its future, and in defence of the Constitution and democracy,” Raja said.
“This is what Nitish ji is trying. He is meeting political leaders, discussing with them, and sharing his views also. We are sharing his understanding. We are with him and he is with us. An ‘India model’ of unity is emerging against the authoritarian misrule of the RSS–BJP,” Raja added. Nitish remembered his old ties with the CPI and how its workers had supported him when he became a Lok Sabha member for the first time in 1989.“We separated in between, but have again come together, and are happy about it. We just want one thing — if the entire Opposition, including the Congress and the Left, unites then we all can take the country ahead,” Nitish said.
He then met Kejriwal, who later tweeted: “We discussed several serious issues related to the country, including education, health, Operation Lotus, the brazen buying of MLAs by these people to topple down governments elected by the public….”
