Nitish Kumar Meets Mamata Banerjee, Tejaswi Yadav Joins

Nitish Kumar meets Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav. What’s on the schedule?

Meeting with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav traveled to Kolkata.

Nitish Kumar’s approach to unifying the opposition
To unify opposition forces against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the center before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, will meet with Mamata Banerjee, her counterpart from West Bengal, on Monday in Kolkata.

Nitish Kumar will meet Mamta Banerjee
According to sources, Kumar will meet Banerjee at her office in the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ on Monday or Tuesday.

The two leaders said they would likely meet behind closed doors to plan their strategy for taking on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.

Nitish will also meet with the SP leader
Today in Lucknow, Nitish Kumar, who has taken on the challenging task of uniting the opposition, will also have a meeting with Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Nitish Kumar to the media
Recently, Kumar told reporters that he would soon launch a national campaign to bring the BJP’s opponents together. On the sidelines of a public event in Patna, Kumar had said, “You will all know once I go out.”

Challenges for Nitish Kumar
Given their prior connections to the Congress Party, the JDU’s de facto leader may find it challenging to persuade both leaders.

While Sudip Bandyopadhyay, a senior TMC MP, also stated that the Trinamool Congress will go its way and maintain distance from both the Congress and the BJP, Akhilesh Yadav had stated that the SP would maintain equal distance from both the Congress and the BJP.

It is believed that this is an attempt to unite opposition forces in opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Center before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Top takeaways from Nitish Kumar’s meeting with Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav:

1. According to earlier reports, Nitish Kumar may meet Mamata Banerjee on April 25. At Banerjee’s office in the state secretariat “Nabanna,” Kumar is anticipated to meet her.

2. According to news source PTI, the two leaders will likely meet behind closed doors to plan their strategy for taking on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

3. Last month, Banerjee met with both Akhilesh Yadav and her counterpart from Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, in similar settings.

4. The meeting will take place soon after Kumar’s trip to New Delhi, where he met with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of Congress. Before the general election the following year, the meeting was seen as a crucial step in laying the foundation for a broad opposition alliance.

5. Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar, also attended the meeting that took place at Kharge’s house.

6. Confirming that Kumar will meet with Akhilesh Yadav as planned, a senior Mahagathbandhan official in Bihar said Tejashwi Yadav will probably travel with Kumar to Lucknow.

7. Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat reportedly had a lengthy conversation with Kumar when he visited him in Patna on Wednesday. As a result, Kumar reportedly changed his plans to start his discussions with regional party leaders the following month.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi Meets Sharad Pawar: Opposition Strategy Takes Shape