A day after a grand rally in Khammam was held by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao in which several leaders of the Opposition parties had participated, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday feigned ignorance and said he didn’t know about the rally.
Mr. Kumar, of late, has been making moves for the unity of the Opposition parties against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ahead of the coming 2024 general elections.
“I didn’t know about a rally being held there [in Khammam by Mr. Rao]. I was busy with some other work. Those who were invited to the rally must have gone there”, the Bihar Chief Minister told media persons in Patna on the sidelines of a function. Mr. Kumar added, “I keep saying that I want nothing for myself. I only have one dream to see the unity of the Opposition parties and this will benefit the country”.
Mr. Kumar was conspicuously absent from the rally called by Mr. Rao on January 18 in Khammam and was seen as the first major step towards a non-Congress Opposition front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Opposition leaders like Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Left party leaders like D. Raja, Pinarayi Vijayan had joined the rally. The Congress, currently busy on Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, too was seen missing from the rally.
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Mr. Rao is currently working for the Opposition’s unity to counter Mr. Modi in the 2024 general election. Mr. Kumar too has been projected by his party (JD-U) leaders as the prime ministerial face, though he always has been refuting such claims saying he was neither “interested, nor desirous” for the Prime Minister’s post. Earlier, Mr. Rao had come to Patna and met with Mr. Kumar but what transpired between them was not known.
Mr. Kumar had recently told media persons that after his ongoing Samadhan Yatra (solution journey) and the forthcoming Budget session of the Bihar Legislature, he would begin his journey across the country “to forge unity among the Opposition parties”. “It will be very good if all the Opposition parties come together and contest the BJP unitedly in the coming general election”, Mr. Kumar has been saying. He also has been promoting his deputy in the Cabinet and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, saying, “we will contest the 2025 Assembly elections under his leadership”. “Ab isko aage badhana hai [now he has to be pushed forward]”, Mr. Kumar said, while pointing towards Mr. Yadav.
Political analysts, though, say that the Opposition leaders in the country now have “isolated and deflated” Mr. Kumar’s “hidden ambition to get into national politics”. “By not inviting Nitish Kumar at the Khammam rally of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the Opposition leaders have deflated Mr. Kumar’s hidden ambition to become the face of Opposition against Narendra Modi in the 2024 general election”, political analyst Ajay Kumar told The Hindu.
