The swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar and his Ministers at Gandhi Maidan here on Friday turned out to be a good occasion for the different non-BJP and non-Congress parties to discuss a possible scenario of their unity on national level.
National Conference president and former CM of Jammu & Kashmir Farooq Abdullah publicly expressed his views that Nitish should now assume Central role and line up a big force against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. “Modi can be countered with development works in States,” he added.
A number of satraps of different regional parties huddled here to watch the swearing-in ceremony and later had informal talks with each other at 1, Ane Marg, the CM residence and later on in a hotel.
Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who sat between Rahul Gandhi and RJD boss lalu Prasad in the front row, said that a new environment was building up against the BJP. “This is the first attempt to bring secular forces on one platform,” he commented.
Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said their aim should be to defeat the communal forces and give a push to the secular forces. He said it is possible and recalled that nobody ever believed that two rivals Nitish and lalu could join ranks. Such experiments could be done in other places too, he added.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had one-hour-long meeting with her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal in a hotel. later on they were joined by DMK’s MK Stalin and former Union Minister TR Baalu of the same party.
The leaders of various parties were of the opinion that Bihar election had been watched with keen interest by the country and the victory of Mahagathbandhan was celebrated in several States. They also agreed that the crushing defeat of BJP and its allies in Bihar was like a big lesson for the regional parties in other States particularly those which will go to polls next year. Mamata arrived here on Thursday evening and reportedly had talks with lalu and Nitish on national politics.
A rare bonhomie was seen on the dais when lalu and Nitish warmly welcomed Mamata and hugged Kejriwal. Nitish’s comraderie with Kejriwal is known since the Bihar CM campaigned for him and Delhi CM extended moral support to JD(U) leader in Bihar polls but lalu had been keeping a distance from Kejriwal. But on Friday RJD chief embraced him and raised their joined hands in the air. Also there had been speculations about bitterness between lalu and Rahul Gandhi and both avoided sharing stage. However, when Rahul arrived at the fag end of the swearing-in ceremony, lalu rose to welcome him and then hugged him sending a signal that the big victory of Mahagathbandhan, of which Congress is also a partner, has erased bitterness if there was any between them.