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Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal invited seven non-BJP, non-Congress Chief Ministers for a “G-8” group meeting in Delhi on March 18. However, the proposed meeting did not take place, an AAP source said.
Members of the proposed “G-8” group whom Mr. Kejriwal reached out to, ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha election, were Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin, Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann.
The AAP spokesperson did not confirm or deny the development.
When contacted, JD(U) general secretary K.C. Tyagi said, “We don’t believe in an Opposition alliance without the Congress. Nitish Kumar has made it clear that a national Opposition alliance should be put together on the Bihar model, where we have taken everybody on board, including the Congress and the left parties.”
“The way [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi is going after every non-BJP party, a group has to be formed to save the Constitution. It is essential that we do it,” an AAP source said. The source did not elaborate on why the meeting did not take place.
Earlier this month, nine leaders from eight national parties, including the CMs of Telangana, West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, wrote to the Prime Minister, accusing the Centre of “misusing the Central agencies and the office of Governor to settle scores with Opposition parties outside the electoral battlefield”. The other signatories included Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar. Notably, no Congress leader signed this letter.
