Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has decided to skip a crucial meeting of the non-NDA parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Friday, exposing sharp differences in the opposition over the issue of Presidential candidate. However, Kumar’s ally Lalu Prasad has agreed to attend the meeting called for exploring the possibility of fielding a joint candidate for the Presidential polls.
As per reports, Kumar wants a second term for President Pranab Mukherjee but many of the opposition leaders, including his own ally Prasad who is the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, are not in favour of his idea. Apparently, the opposition of his idea prompted him to stay out of this vital meeting.
What is interesting is that Kumar himself had sought opposition unity last month and suggested that the Congress being the largest opposition party should head the anti-BJP front in its fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But at the same time, Kumar had suggested to the BJP to pitch Mukherjee as a consensus candidate acceptable to all parties, leading to cracks in the opposition, media reports said.
“The RJD will not support Mukherjee for a second term … Why should I support the candidate of the BJP?” RJD chief Prasad was quoted as saying in a local media today. The BJP though is yet to decide over the candidate although many names are doing the rounds.
According to reports, Ahmad Patel, the political secretary of the Congress chief Gandhi, called up the Bihar chief minister on Tuesday requesting him to attend the meeting, but the latter politely declined the invite. He, however, promised to send former Janata Dal United (JD-U) president Sharad Yadav as his representative to the meet.
“Nothing otherwise should be read into his decision. There is just no politics in it. In fact, the chief minister right now is very busy in his official assignments and hence has decided to stay away from the meeting,” explained JD-U spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.
He added the Grand Alliance which Kumar heads was given the mandate to rule Bihar and that he couldn’t shy away from his responsibility.
But, the BJP countered his decision about not attending the meeting of the opposition parties. “Had he been so concerned about the problems of the masses, Nitish Kumar would not have agreed to become the JD-U president,” asked BJP leader Binod Narayan Jha. He said the unity moves of the opposition had come a cropper even before it got started.
Reports said several important opposition leaders, such as, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, CPI-M’s Sitaram Sitaram Yechury and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad are scheduled to attend the meet to be held in Parliament House complex. Efforts are also on to bring arch political rivals in Uttar Pradesh — Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)— together on a common opposition platform ahead of the presidential poll.
