Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Thursday blamed the Mallikarjun Kharge-led Congress for the Opposition INDIA bloc loosing steam ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. The Bihar Chief Minister said that the Congress was “busy with the five-state elections” and therefore the INDIA bloc had been put on the backburner for now.
“After the 5-state election, they themselves will call everyone,” CM Nitish Kumar said while addressing a public event.
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh are set to go into Assembly elections in November, the results for which will be declared on 3 December.
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CM Nitish Kumar was attending a rally organised by Communist Party of India. The event was attended by CPI general secretary D Raja. The rally was themed ‘Bhaajpa hataao Desh bachao’ (dislodge the BJP from power, save the country).
At the event CM Nitish Kumar said, “Of late, there has not been much progress on that front. The Congress party seems to be more interested in the five assembly polls. In the INDIA coalition, all of us had agreed to assign the Congress the leading role. But it appears they will respond and call the next meeting only after they are through with the ongoing elections”.
Nitish Kumar had organised the first INDIA bloc meet in Patna. The INDIA bloc is comprised of 28 parties, including JD (U), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) among others.
He also charged the BJP, which he had dumped about a year ago, with trying to pit Hindus against Muslims while noting with satisfaction that Bihar has remained relatively free from communal disturbances.
The JD(U) leader lambasted the ruling BJP at the Centre for “trying to alter the country’s history, to hide the fact that it had played no role in the struggle for independence”.
BJP slams INDIA bloc
Taking cue from CM Nitish Kumar‘s statements that Congress had sidelined the INDIA bloc for the 5-state assembly polls, BJP called the INDIA bloc a ‘tukde tukde gang’.
BJP flagged assembly poll rivalry, that members of the INDIA bloc were displaying for the Assembly elections.
“This INDI Alliance is actually a ‘tukde-tukde’ alliance. Rahul Gandhi should take out an INDI Jodo Yatra, and not Bharat Jodo Yatra. SP vs Congress was going on in Madhya Pradesh, today Bihar CM Nitish Kumar attacked Congress, before that it was AAP vs Congress from Delhi to Punjab, in West Bengal it is Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury vs Mamata Banjeree, in Kerala Congress vs Left has been ongoing. It means that this alliance has no mission or vision. This alliance is just about contradictions, confusion, corruption, ambition and frustration — against each other. That is why they taunt each other,” BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla told ANI.
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Updated: 02 Nov 2023, 05:19 PM IST