Amid cheers from party leaders and workers who were shouting slogans “ Desh ka Prime Minister kaisa ho, Nitish Kumar jaisa ho” , Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reached the party office on Saturday to attend a two-day national executive and council meetings.
Mr. Kumar is also scheduled to reach Delhi on September 5 before he begins his begins visiting other States to meet leaders in a bid to unite the Opposition, ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections.
Slamming the BJP’s for allegedly poaching five of his six party MLAs in Manipur, Mr. Kumar asked if the move “was it constitutional?”. He further said all six Manipur MLAs had visited him in Bihar recently and expressed happiness over the JD(U) snapping ties with the BJP-led NDA.
“Just imagine what’s happening. How they (BJP) are breaking off MLAs who won elections from other parties. What sort of this act is? Has it been happening before? This is a new thing”, Mr. Kumar told presspersons at th party office where his party’s two-day national executive and council meetings are underway.
Mr. Kumar also questioned propriety and constitutionality of the alleged poaching of his party MLAs by the BJP. “If all Opposition parties join forces then the people’s mandate will be very good in 2024”, he said with a call for united front against the BJP.
When asked if he would be visiting Delhi on September 5, Mr. Kumar said, “Yes, I’ll be visiting Delhi”. Mr. Kumar is expected to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, some Left party leaders and other national leaders during his three-day scheduled stay in Delhi.
After his Delhi visit, party sources told The Hindu, Mr. Kumar would begin visiting other states to meet leaders for Opposition’s unity in 2024 general elections against BJP. Recently, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had visited Bihar to meet Mr. Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, his son Tejashwi Yadav and discussed unity of the Opposition.
Meanwhile, senior State BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi countered Mr. Kumar asking, “were his party MLAs for sale in Manipur?”.
“They (JD-U) MLAs made Manipur JD-U free and now very soon Laluji will make Bihar JD-U free”, Mr. Modi later tweeted in Hindi. But, Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, JD-U’s national president and close aide of Mr. Kumar, hit back at the BJP leader accusing his party of not adhering to the coalition dharma in Arunachal Pradesh where all seven JD-U MLAs now have joined BJP.
“Want to remind you that both in Arunachal and Manipur, JD-U won seats by defeating BJP. So don’t daydream of liberation from JD-U. Was what happened in Arunachal Pradesh because of your adherence to coalition dharma?,” Mr. Singh said in a tweet.
Also Read | Nitish Kumar — The man who mastered political engineering
In another tweet, he said, “…and once again in Manipur BJP’s moral conduct is in front of everyone. You must remember that in 2015, the Prime Minister had held 42 meetings and only 53 seats could be won. In 2024, the country will be free from jumlebaas (those who give false promises)… just wait”. He also claimed that what happened in Manipur was because of “money power”.
Speaking to presspersons, Mr Singh further said that action in Opposition ruled States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jharkhand show BJP’s fear and desperation for 2024 Lok Sabha poll. “What they (BJP) did in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, they tried to do in Delhi and are doing in Jharkhand now, will have repercussions around the country”, said Mr. Singh who is said to have orchestrated the severing of ties with the BJP to join hands again with the RJD to form mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government in Bihar.
