Opposition Meeting In Bihar: 'Having Tea & Food Together Doesn't Mean Unity', Taunts BJP

Even as opposition leaders arrive in Patna, Bihar for the meeting of opposition leaders from various parties, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, taking a jibe at the opposition leaders said, "having tea and food together doesn't mean that the Opposition is united." Sushil Modi has been at the forefront of the BJP raising questions over possibility of a united opposition fighting the BJP led NDA at Centre for the 2024 general elections. Sushil Modi tried to make his point by asking, "Will the CPM and Congress fight the polls in West Bengal (for Panchayat elections) together? If they do it, that will be real unity." He also added that Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was having to protest in West Bengal against Mamata Banerjee even as talks of opposition unity is underway.

The Kejriwal question

Sushil Modi also questioned whether Kejriwal would be willing to share seats with the Congress in Delhi and Punjab, despite attending the opposition meeting and said that Kejriwal was "blackmailing" the opposition already. "Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal joining the opposition meeting along with Congress, but will he forge a seat-sharing pact with the grand old party in Delhi and Punjab," Sushil Modi questioned. "Kejriwal may have gone to meet Nitish Kumar today, but will he leave seats for Congress in Punjab and Delhi?" he asked.

Vijay Kumar Sinha, Bihar LoP, attacked Nitish Kumar and said that the Bihar CM would lose power in the coming days.

Bihar BJP President Samrat Chaudhary attacked the unity attempt by opposition.

However, JDU was upbeat about the opposition meeting scheduled to be held in Patna on June 23. "All leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav are united to defeat PM Modi in 2024. It's a big challenge for the BJP that if all opposition parties will get united then their political shop will be closed," said JDU's Neeraj Kumar ahead of the Opposition meeting.

"We welcome that all opposition parties are coming together to defeat the ideology of BJP and RSS. If all parties will fight unitedly then BJP will be reduced to 100 seats in the country," said Bihar Congress president Dr Akhilesh Prasad Singh.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi left for the meeting early on Friday morning.

Congress president on Arvind Kejriwal's demand

Speaking to media on the ordinance issues raised by AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said, "We all want to fight together against BJP and our agenda is to remove the BJP govt. We will take a decision on this (on supporting AAP against the Centre's ordinance) before the Parliament session," as he left for the opposition meeting in Patna, Bihar.

Nitish leading the effort

Nitish Kumar has led efforts to bring all opposition parties together against the BJP government at the Centre, ahead of next year's all important Lok Sabha elections, and has already held one-on-one meetings with several top Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patriarch Sharad Pawar, among others, according to ANI.