INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who has been trying for the opposition unity against BJP, was conspicuous by his absence at the congregation
of regional satraps like Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and prominent Left parties' faces like D Raja and
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, at the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) rally called by Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) at Khammam
Wednesday.Though Nitish, during his Samadhan Yatra in Buxar, refused to comment, with a wry smile, on KCR not inviting him to Khammam,
political analysts see the event as a major setback for the Bihar CM, whose party JD(U) projects him as a PM material and who aims to form a
'main front' with Congress and ally RJD against BJP and PM Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls
When contacted, JD(U) national general secretary K C Tyagi said, "KCR always talks about a 'non-BJP and non-Congress' front, but we are
against political untouchability among the non-BJP parties
We want all non-BJP political parties, including Congress, Mamata Banerjee's TMC and Naveen Patnaik' BJD, TDP, Deve Gowda to come together
One can't defeat BJP with half unity among the political parties."Asked whether the Khammam rally was a setback for Nitish's plan, Tyagi
said, "There is no need of being disappointed at this juncture
It is initial stage of forming unity among the parties
Nitish Ji will again come to Delhi after concluding his ongoing Samadhan Yatra in Bihar and talk to the leaders of every party."Displaying a
massive show of opposition unity, the regional satraps not only attended the rally convened by KCR, but also addressed the BRS workers who
to Patna and addressed the media along with Nitish before the Bihar CM met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram
Yechury, CPI general secretary D Raja, his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, NCP president Sharad Pawar, CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar
Bhattacharya, INLD president Om Prakash Chautala and SP patriarch and now late Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav in Delhi
within a month of dumping BJP and forming a Grand Alliance government in Bihar with RJD, Congress and others in August last year in a bid to
forge unity among the non-BJP opposition parties to give a befitting contest to PM Modi in 2024.Later Nitish, accompanied with RJD boss Lalu
Prasad, also called on Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in Delhi in September and held discussions in the direction of forming a non-BJP front
