Nitish Kumar meets Arvind Kejriwal in bid to forge Opposition unity

The meeting was also attended by Bihar Dy CM Tejashwi Yadav and AAP leader Sanjay Singh

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday met his embattled counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, amid the latter’s attempt to drum up support against the Centre’s move to clip Delhi government’s wings and a day after the Congress snubbed the AAP supremo by not inviting him to the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka.

The deliberations also came as the Modi-led government issued an ordinance taking back control of bureaucracy even as Kejriwal strategised to defeat the Bill to replace the ordinance when it comes in Rajya Sabha, a move which the AAP chief thinks will send a signal before the Lok Sabha polls.

As part of his efforts, Chief Minister Kejriwal would meet his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on May 23 followed by a meeting with Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai the next day. He will also meet NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on May 25, as part of his efforts to seek support.

The AAP chief told Nitish that if all the Opposition stand together, the Bill could be defeated in the Rajya Sabha. “If the Bill is defeated in Rajya Sabha, it will send out a message that the BJP will lose the 2024 polls. It will be the semi-final of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," Kejriwal told reporters after the meeting.

Nitish expressed his support and said, “how can you take away an elected government’s power. Look at the Constitution and see what is right. Whatever Kejriwal is saying is right. We are completely with him.”

This was the second meeting Nitish had with Kejriwal, who along with four other top leaders like Naveen Patnaik and Mayawati were not invited to the Bengaluru event, in a little over a month on Opposition unity issue.

At the meeting held at Kejriwal's official residence here, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and AAP Rajya Sabha floor leader Sanjay Singh were present along with the JD(U) top leader. Nitish and Tejashwi had earlier met Kejriwal last on April 12.

Nitish's meeting assumes significance following the ascendance of Congress in Karnataka as it is an attempt to ensure that the Opposition unity is not ruptured.

Congress and AAP are at loggerheads with each other in Delhi and Punjab despite Congress head Mallikarjun Kharge reaching out to Kejriwal last month after the CBI summoned the latter for questioning in Delhi liquor policy case.

Kharge's telephone call on April 16 to Kejriwal had given an impression that both the parties would cooperate with each other at the national level. The impression gathered some mass after Kejriwal did not go for campaigning in Karnataka.

However, pressure from state units appeared to have weighed on both sides.

After his meeting with Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on April 12, Nitish has met several senior Opposition leaders to initiate a dialogue on cooperation ahead of Lok Sabha polls next year.

So far, he has met Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, BJD's Naveen Patnaik, NCP's Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Uddhav Thackeray.

While Patnaik has made it clear that he would not join any Opposition grouping or the NDA, Mamata and Akhilesh have said that they could support Congress if they reciprocate it by supporting regional parties in their strongholds. Akhilesh also skipped the Bengaluru ceremony while Mamata, who was also invited, chose to stay back in Kolkata but deputed Lok Sabha Deputy Leader Kakoli Dastidar.

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Interestingly, Mamata did not depute its Parliament floor leaders Sudip Bandhyopadhyay or Derek O'Brien or any other senior leaders, sending a subtle message to the Congress. While it had skipped Opposition meetings in Parliament and when it started sending representatives after Rahul's disqualification from Lok Sabha, it deputed junior leaders like Prasoon Banerjee and Jawahar Sircar instead of floor leaders.