Huge stride towards Oppn unity: JD(U) announces mega meeting in Patna, TMC confirms presence

A senior JD(U) leader said, “The meeting is finally going to happen in Patna. The idea was first mooted by West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee during her meeting with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar recently, recollecting socialist legend Jayaprakash Narayan’s efforts to form the Janata Party in 1977 by bringing together several parties under one roof. We all liked to go with the symbolism and Patna is ready to host a historic show of Opposition unity.”

Earlier this week, JD(U) chief spokesperson and advisor K C Tyagi hinted that work on organising the Patna meeting was going on. “Nitish Kumar has already met all the top Opposition leaders and now the stage is set to take it to a logical conclusion. The Bihar CM has been able to break the ice between the Congress and the AAP, and the Congress and the TMC,” he said.

TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said Mamata Banerjee would attend the event. “The Opposition parties will put up a united fight against the BJP. Mamata Banerjee has made her points clear. If the Congress follows the same path, then it will further strengthen Opposition unity. Nitish Kumar came down here to meet Mamata Banerjee. She proposed that the meeting be held in Patna. They have accepted it. If all parties come together, then it will definitely boost our unity.”

However, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said notwithstanding what happens in Patna, his party would continue to fight the TMC in the state. “Even in Parliament, sometimes they (TMC) stand with us and sometimes they don’t. But that will not stop our fight against the TMC in Bengal. Notwithstanding the Opposition meeting and whether both parties come together, our movement against them will go on.”

The JD(U) sees the Patna conclave as a great boost for Nitish Kumar’s ambition to showcase himself as a key leader in the anti-BJP camp in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. According to party insiders, there could be one-on-one contests between the BJP and an Opposition party in about 475 seats.

Besides the JD(U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) from Bihar, and the TMC, the other parties that are expected to attend the rally are the Samajwadi Party (SP), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). The confirmation of the presence of the top leaders of some of these parties is awaited, according to JD(U) insiders.

— With inputs from ENS Delhi and Kolkata