Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday,while interacting with media ,said that he is waiting for a signal from the Congress to work towards bringing all the opposition parties in one table .He said ,the BJP would not be able to cross 100 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls .
He was speaking at a National convention of the CPI(ML) which supports the Mahagathbandhan(Grand alliance ) in the state from outside ,on the theme ,”SAVE DEMOCRACY,SAVE CONSTITUTION,DRIVE OUT FASCISM”
Nitish said his exit from the NDA last year had brought the curtains down on BjP’s attempts to expand in the state ,but we need to do something bigger at the national level .
“I have just completed Samdhan yatra that went very well ,I am now ready to work outside Bihar and work for opposition unity, I have been getting calls from several opposition parties ,I am only waiting for congress signal ,he says .The congress has to take the decision fast,we have to come together against the BJP” ,says Nitish.
He was sharing the platform with Salman khursheed and while replying to him ,says as far as I know and understand my party ,I can say the Congress has been thinking of the opposition unity ,I will convey the message to my party.The JD(U) has always said that the opposition without congress would not work .He said that he has been trying to get maximum parties in the opposition camp,
which he preferred to call the main front ,rather than the third front .
Congress response to Nitish kumar:
After Bihar CM statement, he is waiting for congress signal to work towards opposition unity ,Jairam Ramesh says “we do not need a certificate from anyone that we need to take a lead because an opposition unity will be unsuccessful and not possible without it”.
He says ,we do not like many parties who attended the convention, particularly those who are double faced ,they explicitly are with us ,but their actions are in the interest of the BJP .He said ,congress is the only party to have never compromised with the BJP .The Congress welcomed Kumar’s Statement and said it would decide on issues such as opposition unity at the forthcoming All India congress committee plenary session to be held in Raipur .During the Bharat jodo yatra ,we invited like minded parties to join and have a common fight .Most of the like minded parties joined in.In Parliament, the entire opposition joined in the Adani issue , certainly congress will do the the best in a bigger manner ,he said.
Talking about the Adani issue ,he said the Congress had demanded the setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the allegations, many parties stood with us and some did not ,Ramesh said.
He said ,it is wrong that congress is not in coalition with the opposition parties ,it has joined hands with many parties and is in coalition with the ruling party in Kerala ,Jharkhand ,Bihar , Mahrashtra.
Backdrop of Nitish’ statement ;
1.Nitish on BJP:
He said he would prefer to die rather than realigning with the NDA adding that going back to the NDA in 2017 was a mistake.He said that the BJP is trying to spread to communal hate and the younger generation must remember Gandhi’s dream of a secular India ,they must know who killed him .
2.BJP’ s response: In response to his statement,the BJP state executive has passed a resolution to never align with JD(U). Speaking to the media on Sunday ,Sushil kumar modi said that some senior JD(U) leaders had been flaoting rumours about Nitish Kumar’s return to NDA,which is totally misplaced .He has betrayed the mandate and lost his power to convert votes .This would boost the morale of the party towards forming a BJP govt in future in Bihar .
He said the party was unanimous on Nitish free Bihar now.
JD(U) could not win 10-15 seats on it’s strength in the best polls .Had PM modi not campaigned for the JD(U) in 2019 lok sabha polls ,the party would have not won more than 2 seats ,it was because of Narendra Modi’s campaign that the NDA won 39 seats including JD(U)’s 16 seats Said Sushil kumar Modi .
