“Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are always together.” said Nitish Kumar.
Patna:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s first round of talks with two opposition leaders who spoke out most outspokenly against the Congress today achieved a score of Perfect 10. Both Bangladeshi Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav are in agreed in principle on the need to stop the BJP and the unity and cohesion needed to bring it about.
With Mrs. Banerjee, the leader known for her fiery temper, Mr. Kumar concludes that there is “no ego clash” and no problems “when thought, vision and mission are clear”. With Akhilesh Yadav he appealed to the ‘old school tie’ of the JP movement.
Opening the press conference, Akhilesh Yadav was emphatic. “I stand with you in this endeavor to oust the BJP (from power) and save the nation,” said the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, flanked by Mr Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.
“Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are always together… We are Samajwadis. We share a history,” Kumar said at the press conference, sitting next to Akhilesh Yadav. Mr. Yadav’s late father, Mulayam Singh Yadav along with Mr. Kumar and his ally and Rashtriya Janata Dal patriarch Lalu Yadav, had cut his political teeth in the Samajwadi movement.
“You have to understand that we are doing our best to change history… We have decided to bring together as many parties as possible and work for the country,” he added.
Lucknow was Mr. Kumar’s second stop after Kolkata, where he had extended talks with Mamata Banerjee this morning.
“We will move forward together. We have no personal ego. We want to work collectively,” Ms Banerjee had said after the meeting.
However, her caveat was that the message of unity had to come from Bihar where “Jayaprakash (Narayan) ji’s movement started”.
“If we have a meeting of all parties in Bihar, we can decide where to go. But first of all, we have to make it clear that we are united,” Ms Banerjee had said. The JP movement, which had begun as a protest against misrule in Bihar, had later turned against the Congress central government led by India Gandhi.
Mr. Kumar, who had engaged with the Congress not once but twice at the state level, looked delighted.
The Bihar Chief Minister had taken on the task of onboarding leaders hostile to Congress after meeting with Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi earlier this month.
After a lifelong confrontation with Congress, the leader of Janata Dal United has collaborated with the party not once, but twice, at the state level. In recent years, he has also made no bones about admitting that an opposition front without the Grand Old Party cannot hope to push the BJP out of power.
He has already brought on board Arvind Kejriwal, one of the most outspoken critics of the Congress. Following their April 13 meeting, the Prime Minister of Delhi has announced that he was “completely behind” Mr Kumar and that it was “extremely necessary” for the opposition to “come together and change the government at the center”.
