Nitish skips Sonia’s meet before Prez poll
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to ‘skip’ the meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday and instead send the party’s former national president Sharad Yadav, has put a question mark on attempts at opposition unity ahead of the Presidential election.
“Nitish Kumarji would not be attending the meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhiji due to his prior engagements. Our senior party leader Sharad Yadav will represent the party, JD(U) national spokesperson KC Tyagi said.
The meeting on Friday was called to try and reach a consensus opposition candidate for Presidential election.
Kumar’s decision, who was among the first opposition leaders to have met Congress president over the issue of fielding a joint candidate for the President’s post, has put opposition unity in jeopardy.
“Nothing should be read into Nitish Kumar’s decision. We are the pioneers of this unity move. JD(U) is being represented by Sharad Yadav, so where is the problem?” asked Tyagi.
He added: “He (Kumar) is one of the first leaders to have talked about grand alliance, even for UP assembly elections, and he is mooting the same for 2019 Lok Sabha polls.”
Tyagi, to prove that Kumar’s absence was not a setback, said that on June 3, all opposition leaders, including Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad would be assembling in Chennai during the birthday celebrations of DMK chief M Karunanidhi. “This would be the first big meeting of leaders after 1988 in south,” he said.
The Bihar CM earlier met Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, DMK MP Kanimozhi and Left leaders in this regard.
However, party insiders feel that one reason for Kumar’s likely absence from the meet could be the presence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, with whom the JD(U) is not enjoying the ‘best of times’ in the grand alliance government in Bihar. The recent exposures of BJP on Lalu’s fresh corruption cases may also be another deterrent.
“This is the reason why the party is yet to make a clear stand on participating in Lalu’s proposed rally in Patna in August. Let us wait and see what happens by then,” said a party leader.
Moreover, Lalu is opposed to Kumar’s idea of second term for Pranab Mukherjee.
Kumar’s back out could also be over questions that might be raised after his party pulled out of a united opposition in UP and JD(U)’s performance in the Delhi municipal polls. BJP leaders in Patna, however, said that Yadav’s deputation was eyewash as he holds no clout.
“This is JD(U)’s internal matter. The CM might be busy. But non-participation of Kumar shows that the whole exercise of opposition unity is superficial,” said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.