The next meeting of opposition unity will be held in Bengaluru.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is in the ‘Chief Minister’s Janata Darbar’ on Monday and on the other hand, an important hearing is going on in the Patna High Court regarding his dream project caste-based population census. The Chief Minister’s meeting with Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad Yadav is also fixed at 4 pm. A book on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar written by his friend ‘Nitish Kumar: Through the eyes of intimate friends’ will be inaugurated. Seeing so much around him, Nitish Kumar is continuously giving new news from Maharashtra to Delhi. After postponing one date, he had organized a meeting of opposition unity against the BJP government at the Center led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Patna, but the date of the next meeting has come for the third time in the account of the Congress. After postponing two dates, Congress National General Secretary KC Venugopal informed that the meeting will be held on June 17-18 in Bengaluru. This information came when news came from JDU’s chief national spokesperson that now the meeting will be held after the monsoon session of Parliament.
See where is the root of all the trouble
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting for opposition unity in Patna on June 12 after talking to opposition leaders across the country and meeting Congress’ number one leader Rahul Gandhi, President Mallikarjun Kharge. The meeting had to be postponed due to very poor response from Congress and Nitish Kumar himself mentioned that they (Congress) should come forward. After this, when the Congress was ready, a meeting was held in Patna on 23rd June. Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also attended the meeting, but they left before interacting with the media. The reason was the tussle during the meeting with the Congress. The rest of the leaders who came in front of the media, instead of answering any question in the press conference, they thought it appropriate to leave after speaking their words. While speaking, Congress President Kharge informed about the next meeting to be held in Shimla on July 11 or 12. But, this information failed. Then, information was given that the meeting would be held in Bengaluru on 13-14 July. Now the information about postponement of this date has also been made public by JDU’s national chief spokesperson KC Tyagi. A few hours later, information was given by the Congress in a hurry that the meeting would be held in Bengaluru on June 17-18.
There was doubt on the date earlier, it will remain so now.
July 11-12 was the date for Shimla, then July 13-14 for Bengaluru, but both these dates were doubtful for Bihar. Despite the fact that the monsoon session of the Legislature in Bihar would start from July 10, when the issue of July 11 or 12 came to the fore, Amar Ujala had questioned it in the press conference itself. There were many more questions, but none were answered. Not even later. On June 23, an announcement was made for Shimla on July 11-12 and then the date-place changed. Now Tyagi talked about getting a date after the monsoon session of Parliament. After this, the Congress has given a new date in a hurry. The Congress has also written in support of this announcement of opposition unity, although it may be too early to take it for granted due to several reasons, including the monsoon session of the Legislature in Bihar.
Isn’t this the effect of Maharashtra’s politics?
According to Rashtriya Janata Dal spokesperson Chittaranjan Gagan, fearful of the success of the opposition unity meeting held in Bihar on June 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah conspired to weaken the opposition in Maharashtra. If this claim of Gagan is taken as the basis, then the grand alliance government of Bihar has started to see that it will not be easy to maintain opposition unity. Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee stayed with the Congress during the meeting in Patna and claimed to cooperate, but there are reports of wrangling from West Bengal. On the other hand, AAP is not ready to share its monopoly with Congress in Delhi. AAP had expressed its tussle with the Congress even in the Patna meeting. Maharashtra’s upheaval after two prominent leaders and states certainly hasn’t been smooth sailing for Nitish Kumar, who has been spearheading opposition unity.
