Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has invited leaders from several opposition parties to a meeting in Patna on June 23 to figure out an action plan for putting a united opposition against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
There are several hurdles in his bid to unite the opposition as some parties look divided on a number of issues.
Recently, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah slammed Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal when the AAP leader sought the support of J&K parties against the Union government’s ordinance that takes control of services in Delhi. Abdullah accused Kejriwal of hypocrisy, pointing out that AAP did not support the people of J&K in 2019, when Article 370 was diluted and the region’s special status was revoked.
Moreover, the Congress party has differences with AAP and Trinamool Congress on a number of issues.
Presenting a joint opposition prime minister candidate is also a difficult task.
In such a situation, how does Nitish Kumar plan to unite the opposition? The Wire‘s Chirag Jha spoke to Ranjeet Kumar Jha, the general secretary of JD(U)’s Bihar unit and Amrish Ranjan Pandey, the spokesperson of the Congress party, to understand what exactly the parties are expecting from this meeting.
