Nitish Kumar Takes Mission To Forge Oppn Unity To West Bengal, Will Meet Mamata Banerjee Today

WITH a daunting task of uniting opposition political forces in the country that he has taken upon himself, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will call on his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday. This meeting in Kolkata comes after he met Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi.

Nitish’s earlier meeting with the Congress leadership was seen as a major step in the way of forging a grand opposition alliance against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, according to a report by ANI. During his meeting with the Congress leaders in Delhi, Rashtriya Janata Dal Chairperson and Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was also present.

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Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi had, while speaking to reporters after the meeting, called it a “historic step” for opposition unity and an “ideological fight” against the BJP. He had also shared a picture of him standing with the current Congress Chief, Nitish Kumar, and Tejashwi Yadav and said, “standing together, will fight together for India”.

"In this battle of ideology, a historic step has been taken today towards Opposition unity. (We are) standing together, will fight together - for India!" he had said in the tweet.

The meeting between these leaders had taken place at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi. Apart from Tejashwi and CM Nitish Kumar, Janata Dal (United)’s President Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh was also present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also in the process of forming a united front against the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election which now hardly a year away. Last month, she had met Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav at her residence in Kolkata where the UP-based party had held its national executive meeting.

However, Mamata Banerjee is known for not having the same bonhomie with Congress as other anti-BJP political parties have with it. Earlier in March, after Congress’ Byron Biswas had wrested the Sagardighi assembly seat from the TMC, Mamata Banerjee said that there is an “unholy nexus between Congress-CPI(M)-BJP” in the eastern state.

West Bengal’s Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary is one of the most vocal critics of the Mamata Banerjee-led government in the state. Last month, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary had accused the Bengal CM of having an understanding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “defame Congress and Rahul Gandhi”.

“Mamata Banerjee is speaking on the directions of the PM. PM and 'didi' have a deal to defame the image of Rahul Gandhi and Congress,” he had said this in response to CM Banerjee’s charge that BJP was stirring a row over Rahul Gandhi’s comments on Indian democracy in the United Kingdom to make him a “hero”.

(With agency inputs)