Nitish Kumar Meets Akhilesh Yadav In Lucknow, Says His Only Aim Is To Unite Opposition, Rules Out Being The PM Face

Lucknow, April 24 (TNA) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and the two discussed the possibilities of a united front in the 2024 general elections. Dy CM of Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was also present at the meeting. Kumar later told reporters that he was trying to cement the opposition parties in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls and ruled out him eyeing the prime minister’s chair.

“I would like to clarify that all I am doing is to unite the opposition parties and I am not the PM face” he clarified. Earlier in the day the power duo from Bihar had met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and from there they directly flew into the UP capital. Nitish Kumar also claimed that no development was happening under the watch of prime minister Modi and all such claims of ‘vikas’ were mere hogwash.

When we fight jointly, the opposition aprties will benefit immensely and that country will get rid of the misrule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) he said further. Now we are uniting in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and the results will have far reaching consequences for national politics, the Bihar chief minister claimed.

When asked it there were plans to call on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, he ducked the question and said for now he had come to meet Akhilesh Yadav.

Sources say that Nitish Kumar is trying to forge alliances in the politically and electorally crucial West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which constitute 42, 80 and 40 Lok Sabha seats - a big chunk of 162 seats in the 545 member strong Lower House of the Parliament. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Indian National Congress seem to be “not very averse” to “joining ranks with the Bihar-led political formation” either.