On a day NCP supremo Sharad Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and other top leaders of the Congress in the national Capital for Opposition unity, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s ally Jitan Ram Manjhi set political circles abuzz with a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday.
The development came amid the Janata Dal (United) leader’s talks with several Opposition leaders as part of his effort to forge an alliance against the BJP.
Manjhi, however, sought to quell any speculation and reiterated that Nitish has all the qualities to become the country’s Prime Minister.
He asserted that he has sworn to remain with Nitish and rejected any possibility of joining hands with the BJP, saying it has spoken against the existence of small parties like his. During his 2-day Delhi visit, Nitish interacted with Kharge and Rahul and CPI’s D Raja, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accompanied by Bihar Deputy CM and RLD leader Tejashwi Yadav during his two days to Delhi.
Queried about his absence from Wednesday’s meeting, Pawar said he was asked to join the meeting in Delhi but was unable to do so as he had work in Pune. The leaders are likely to take forward unity talks as more deliberations are expected in the coming days.
The Congress will convene a meeting of top opposition leaders very soon.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav too on Thursday said people of the country want change of power, but evaded a direct reply on whether his party would join an Opposition alliance to the BJP. “This is a big question. What name are you giving to it (the grand alliance)? But I know one thing that people of Uttar Pradesh will unseat the BJP,” said Yadav who had met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata last month.
Both TMC and SP had said the two parties would stay away from both the Congress and the BJP and indicated possible talks with other regional players ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Yadav had given his party’s support to the TMC during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly poll, which was reciprocated by Mamata when she campaigned for the former in Uttar Pradesh during the 2022 State election.