The much-awaited meeting of parties opposed to the BJP may be held here on June 12, according to hints that have emanated from a meeting of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) here on Sunday.
While no significant office bearer confirmed or denied the same, many present at the meeting said on condition of anonymity that the disclosure was made by the chief minister himself. Kumar, the JD(U)'s supreme leader, has been pitching for "opposition unity" ever since he snapped ties with the BJP in August last year, following accusations that the ally was trying to create fissures in his party and diminish his standing. Kumar, who is now heading an alliance government in Bihar which includes RJD, Congress and the Left, has reached out to leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, all of whom are opposed to BJP but not very comfortable with the grand old party either.
In fact, the idea of hosting a meeting of opposition leaders in Patna was floated by Banerjee, who invoked memory of Jayaprakash Narayan upon meeting Kumar in Kolkata last month. As part of "opposition unity" drive, Kumar has held parleys with not only Congress allies like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, but also its opponents like Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao.