Bihar capital Patna will host on June 23 chief minister Nitish Kumar's long provided show of non-NDA cooperation, bringing to town a number of staunch BJP competitors such as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and ex-MP Rahul Gandhi, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Tamil Nadu's M K Stalin and Hemant Soren of Jharkhand.
JD(U) national president Lalan Singh and deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of RJD reeled off a list of names that had confirmed their participation in response to Nitish’s call for anti-BJP unity to take on BJP in next year’s general elections.
The intended date of the ceremony was June 12, but Congress claimed it wasn't contacted before setting the date, therefore the event was postponed.
Former UP CM and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI national secretary D Raja, CPM supremo Sitaram Yechury and CPI-ML' s Dipankar Bhattacharya have consented to be part of the conclave, Tejashwi said.
Congress was believed to have expressed its reservations about the venue, but the deputy CM said leaders of “all like-minded parties” had since given their nod to the proposal to hold the “big meeting” in Patna. Tejashwi credited his father and RJD president Lalu Prasad and CM Nitish for the formation of the Mahagathbandhan government in the state and then working to get all non-NDA parties on the same page. He also spoke about Nitish and him travelling the extra mile, including visits to Kolkata to meet Mamata and then to Lucknow for a discussion with Akhilesh, as part of their outreach.
The RJD official claimed that all non-NDA parties were bound together by their shared hostility to the BJP's supposedly authoritarian practises, which posed a threat to democracy.