Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday met his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar who quit the NDA to form government with RJD-Congress alliance earlier this month. Rao has met several Opposition leaders in the past in a bid to form a united front against the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
This will be KCR’s first visit to Bihar since becoming chief minister of Telangana in 2014. KCR has recently given a call for “BJP-mukt Bharat” ahead of the 2024 polls on the lines of “RSS-mukt Bharat” call given by Kumar.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader also met Bihar Deputy CM and RJD scion Tejashwi Yadav in Patna.
Rao met the families of the Indian soldiers martyred in the Galvan Valley along with the Bihar Chief Minister. He handed over the cheques for Rs 10 lakhs to each family of martyred soldiers on behalf of the Telangana government. He also extended support of Rs 5 lakhs each to families of 12 Bihar workers who died in the fire mishap in a timber depot in Secunderabad in March 2022.
Patna, Bihar | Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao along with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar & Dy CM Tejashwi Yadav provides financial assistance to the families of Indian soldiers who lost their lives in Galwan valley &to the families of 12 Bihar workers who died in a fire accident recently pic.twitter.com/P3CYpEOy8L
— ANI (@ANI) August 31, 2022
Taking a dig at the meeting between two chief ministers, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said it is a “get-together of two daydreamers” who have no standing in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He dubbed the meeting as the “latest comedy show of opposition unity”.
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Neeraj Kumar, an MLC and chief spokesperson of JD(U) had earlier said that the meeting between Rao and Kumar will be a “unity between the south and the north” for defeating the BJP.
“KCR is undoubtedly a prominent leader of the south and a key voice against the BJP. In Nitish Kumar, the opposition is seeing new hope. The meeting between the two leaders is bound to have national repercussions,” he added, according to news agency PTI.
RJD national vice president Shivanand Tiwary also termed the meeting between two leaders “important”. “Both leaders have a very important role to play in forging opposition unity. The exit of Nitish from NDA has been the biggest setback to the BJP in recent times,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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