Patna: Often open till the late hours, the Patna headquarters of the Janata Dal (United) was unusually quiet round 1 pm Thursday — a day earlier than the Opposition assembly that occasion chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will chair — with solely a handful of males loitering on the premises.
“Ye toh kuch chhutput neta hai, koi bada neta nahi aye aaj (these are small-time politicians, no massive chief has turned up right now),” mentioned a personal safety guard posted on the entry gate.
The workplace of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), situated throughout the highway, was nonetheless welcoming guests — primarily occasion employees from varied components of Bihar and reporters working with native media retailers.
Positioned a couple of kilometres away from Vir Chand Patel Path, which homes each the RJD and JD(U) places of work, Sadaqat Ashram, the state head workplace of the Congress, provided a research in distinction — decked as much as greet Rahul Gandhi, who will handle occasion employees Friday forward of the Opposition assembly.
In the meantime, throughout Patna, a poster conflict has erupted over the grand showcase of Opposition unity forward of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There are hoardings saying the Opposition assembly, peppered with photographs of the taking part leaders — from Nitish, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) and their Tamil Nadu counterpart M.Ok. Stalin (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (Aam Aadmi Occasion) and CPI(M) basic secretary Sitaram Yechury.
There are fairly a couple of posters from the Congress steady that includes Rahul Gandhi — seen blowing kisses in addition to in his scruffy Bharat Jodo Yatra avatar.
Then there are posters put up by the BJP — one outdoors its Patna workplace options photographs of the contributors and describes them as “Thugs of India”.
One other poster takes a dig at former ally Nitish — now working the state authorities in coalition with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress — and his political somersaults. It seeks to remind the CM of his earlier assertion that he won’t ever group up with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad ever once more.
However the Opposition leaders aren’t significantly perturbed.
“The BJP is rattled by our unity. The language utilized by them within the posters is absurd,” mentioned JD(U) spokesperson Ok.C. Tyagi.
“And the general public they’re calling thugs have been with the BJP in some unspecified time in the future, be it Mamata Banerjee or [Peoples Democratic Party chief] Mehbooba Mufti, and even the JD(U). So, the BJP has to resolve whether or not it was related to thugs,” he added.
Most Opposition leaders have been, nevertheless, tightlipped concerning the focus of the assembly, which shall be held at Nitish’s official residence.
ThePrint had earlier learnt from sources within the taking part events that the assembly could be centred on figuring out frequent points on which the Opposition can unite, fairly than seat-sharing.
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‘Seat-sharing not a giant difficulty’
Chatting with ThePrint, Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh mentioned the occasion had, “even earlier than the Patna assembly… held numerous conferences with varied Opposition events on find out how to rid the nation of BJP and RSS”.
“Based on me, seat-sharing isn’t that massive a difficulty. All events will get seats based mostly on their functionality. Even earlier we’ve fought elections in an alliance,” he added.
Prasad mentioned a “little little bit of push and pull is a part of politics”.
“For instance, in Bihar, NCP, DMK, and AAP don’t have a lot floor. However the Left events, JD(U) and RJD, and even the Congress have a presence right here,” he added. “It’s not a giant difficulty.”
In the meantime, Ok.C. Tyagi reiterated the necessity to undertake the ‘BJP-versus-one-Opposition-candidate’ components.
“The 2024 Lok Sabha election is in opposition to the BJP and its unsuitable insurance policies. Solely these events who suppose equally have been referred to as,” he mentioned of the assembly. “All of them, taken collectively, affect 450 Lok Sabha seats. Our last purpose shall be to have one Opposition candidate in opposition to the BJP in all of those 450 seats. The Opposition shouldn’t make statements in opposition to one another. Reasonably, they need to all work collectively to take away the BJP.”
Amid all this, hypothesis has been rife concerning the AAP threatening to stage a walkout from the assembly if the Congress didn’t decide to assist it on the ordinance difficulty in opposition to the Modi authorities in Parliament. Nevertheless, AAP sources dismissed such discuss.
Mamata meets Lalu, Jayant Chaudhury to skip meet
Some leaders began arriving Thursday, with former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti being the primary to land. Subsequent was West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who got here along with her nephew, MP and occasion basic secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Mamata later met Lalu Prasad at his residence.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann additionally landed Thursday.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Chaudhary Jayant Singh despatched in a observe of remorse saying that he couldn’t attend the assembly on account of pre-existing household commitments.
“I hope that this assembly shall be an necessary stepping stone in the direction of Opposition unity,” he mentioned within the letter, which was launched to the media. “I congratulate you for this profitable endeavour.”
Again at Sadaqat Ashram, Congress leaders — together with state in-charge Tariq Anwar — inspected the preparations for Rahul’s go to through the day.
Based on a tentative schedule shared by Congress sources, Rahul and occasion president Mallikarjun Kharge are anticipated to reach round 11.30am Friday. Each will hoist the nationwide flag on the occasion workplace, then unveil a statue of B.R. Ambedkar, earlier than addressing a public assembly.
The Congress state unit is just not hiding its pleasure concerning the arrival of its “jan nayak”, because the posters handle Rahul.
“That is the primary time Rahul ji is coming to Bihar after strolling 4,000 kilometres from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, in opposition to the politics of hate and division,” mentioned Akhilesh Prasad Singh. “We need to give him a historic welcome.”
From village-level employees to prime leaders within the state, “all of us will collect to welcome him”, Singh added.
“Additionally it is our success that, together with Rahul ji, prime Opposition leaders of the nation are gathering in Bihar,” he mentioned. “Bihar is named the land from the place Mahatma Gandhi began the liberty motion.”
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