Opposition unity for Lok Sabha 2024: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has been making efforts towards opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is likely to meet his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on April 25. Taking the step to build a united Opposition to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Bihar Chief Minister will meet Mamata Banerjee at the latter’s Kalighat residence in South Kolkata on April 25 evening.
Nitish Kumar is likely to arrive in Kolkata on Tuesday morning. As per the Trinamool Congress insiders told news agency IANS, there is a high possibility of his meeting with Mamata Banerjee during his visit to the state. A member of the West Bengal cabinet said that the meeting will emphasise the unity of the opposition forces against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the last couple of months, Banerjee has had meetings with several non-BJP and non-Congress leaders on the issue of opposition unity against the BJP in the 2024 polls.
Mamata Banerjee met Akhilesh Yadav
Last month, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav met her in Kalighat. In the meeting, the two leaders agreed to maintain a distance with Congress and rather focus on the unity of the regional forces against BJP in the 2024 polls. Soon after meeting Akhilesh, Mamata Banerjee went to Odisha and had a meeting with her counterpart Naveen Patnaik. This was followed by a visit to Kolkata by Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy during which he met Banerjee.
Last week, she also called up her counterpart in Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin and discussed the unity of opposition forces against the role of Governors in the opposition-ruled state in the country. In the recent past, Mamata Banerjee, in all her public meetings, stressed that if the opposition gets united before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, then it is possible to bring an end to the BJP-led regime. However, she has always avoided the tricky issue of whether Congress is a part of her blueprint of a united opposition against the BJP.
Nitish Kumar pitches for Opposition unity
On the other hand, Nitish Kumar has been also meeting various opposition leaders and attending different events that brought together different opposition parties for Opposition unity. Earlier this month, Bihar CM along with his deputy Tejashwi Yadav met key Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and his counterpart Arvind Kejriwal in a bid to unite the opposition against the Modi government ahead of next year’s general elections. After the meeting, Kumar said he will string to bring all Opposition parties together. We completed the last round talk with Congress, he added.
Kumar also had a meeting with two prominent Left leaders – CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja this month. Notably, CM Kumar is likely to call on his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in the first week of May. He may also meet Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
(With IANS inputs)