Congress claims grand alliance for VP polls intact

Congress on Thursday claimed that the anti-BJP alliance forged for the presidential and vice presidential polls was intact despite the exit of JD(U) led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

“The remaining political parties were together then and are together now,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters responding to questions over the future of opposition unity against the BJP.

Kumar's exit is seen as a severe blow to the efforts to forge a grand alliance to take on the BJP in 2019. It was Nitish who had proposed such an alliance to Congress President Sonia Gandhi days before the Presidential elections were declared.

Kumar was touted to be the face of the 'grand alliance' to take on Modi in 2019 but there were hiccups even before it was launched as he chose to stay away from the meeting convened by the Congress President to decide on a joint presidential candidate only to support Ram Nath Kovind later.

The JD(U) later announced support for Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the joint opposition nominee for the August 5 vice presidential election. The change in loyalties of the JD(U) has now put a question mark on that too.