National Desk, 23 June: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hosted the much awaited opposition summit in Patna with the goal of reaching an agreement to create a unified opposition front to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Opposition chose Patna as the location for its summit because it commemorates Jayaprakash Narayan’s call for a complete revolution in 1974 which led to the overthrow of Indira Gandhi’s majority government.
Ahead of the meeting, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “There is a war of ideology going on in India. On one side is Congress party’s ‘Bharat Jodo’ ideology and on the other RSS and BJP’s ‘Bharat Todo’ ideology …Congress party’s DNA is in Bihar.”
He claimed that the opposition parties had united in order to defeat the BJP.
“BJP is working to spread hate, violence and break the country. We are working to spread love and unite. Opposition parties have come here today and together we will defeat BJP,” he added.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) head Jayant Chaudhary decided to skip the summit due to a “pre-decided family programme” while leaders of many opposition parties arrived in Patna on Thursday. However, Chaudhary believed that the gathering would mark a “important turning point in the journey towards opposition unity.”
This arose after the Janata Dal (United) which is hosting the meeting claimed Mayawati the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had not received an invitation.
Leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party Mayawati made the sarcastic remark “Dil mile ya na mile, haath milate rahiye” in response to criticism of the gathering.
Additionally, she used the phrase “Muh me Ram, bagal me chhuri” from Hindi saying that the opposition parties ought to have disclosed their agendas beforehand.
Leaders of opposition parties to the BJP will attend the meeting which has been convened by Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar and a leader of the Janata Dal (United).
Among the leaders who travelled to Patna for the conference were PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Political figures from the Congress including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Uddhav Thackeray and MP Sanjay Raut visited on Friday.