Cracks are beginning to emerge in the I.N.D.I.A bloc as the name of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge was put forth for the prime ministerial candidate at the alliance's recent meeting on Tuesday.
Even as Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal have endorsed Kharge for the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition bloc, the JD(U) is reportedly peeved with the alliance for not giving any key position to Kumar, the longest serving chief minister in the bloc.
On Wednesday, a day after the I.N.D.I.A bloc's meeting, a reportedly miffed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar convened a meeting with party top brass, including members of Parliament in Delhi.
A JD(U) national executive meeting will also be held on December 29, with Kumar expected to address its members amid fresh moves within the I.N.D.I.A bloc to take on the ruling BJP.
While the executive meeting was already on the cards, the JD(U) has also called a national council meeting the same day.
Hindustan Times cited some unnamed senior party leaders as admitting that there was some unease within the party on the push for Kharge as the head of the bloc, adding that the decision to convene the national council on the same day as the national executive was "unusual" and often the precursor to key political decisions.
Posters calling for assigning Kumar a big role in national politics also emerged in several parts of Patna on Tuesday when the JD(U) leader was away in Delhi to attend a crucial meeting of the bloc.
The party later came out with a quick clarification that it had nothing to do with the posters, wary of upsetting the supreme leader who has been at pains to assert that his efforts at forging opposition unity were not guided by personal ambitions.
Kumar also reportedly left the Tuesday meeting early. However, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh clarified said that Kumar did so only after after informing Congress chief Kharge, and senior leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
“Nitish Kumar is not angry at all. He left the meeting after informing Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. It was decided in the meeting that only two or three persons will brief the media,” he was quoted as saying by HT.
Speaking to news agency ANI, JD(U) leader Sunil Kumar Pintu mocked the Tuesday meeting of I.N.D.I.A partners."In the meeting yesterday, big leaders of several parties had come for sharing in the alliance. But no discussion on the same could be done. Yesterday's meeting was restricted to tea and biscuits."
#WATCH | On INDIA Alliance meeting, JD(U) MP Sunil Kumar Pintu says, "In the meeting yesterday, big leaders of several parties had come for sharing in the alliance. But no discussion on the same could be done. Yesterday's meeting was restricted to tea biscuits...because Congress… pic.twitter.com/7PCaaeUANF
— ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2023
Banerjee, who sprung a surprise by endorsing Kharge as Opposition bloc's PM candidate after telling reporters that it was "premature" to discuss leadership on Monday, was also quoted as saying, “I have no such news of anyone being unhappy.”
Kharge, on the other hand, has maintained that it was important to win and increase the opposition's strength first.
"We should decide on how to win first. If you don't have MPs, then what is the use of discussing the prime minister (candidate)? We will first try and win a majority first. We will first try and win unitedly.
"We will first win and then our MPs will decide democratically," Kharge had said at a press conference after the meeting when asked if he was the PM face of the opposition alliance.
(With PTI inputs)