Amidst the conjecture making round the political circle that the next meet of the opposition leaders for taking forward the process of unity, would take place in Patna on May 18, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashvi Yadav left for Mumbai on May 11 to meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray. Nitish’s Mumbai visit comes on a day when the Supreme Court gave his verdict on the Shiv Sena split lasting the Governor’s action but simultaneously stating that the Uddhav Thackeray government could not be restored.
Nonetheless the national vice president of the RJD Shivanand Tiwari told that the formal date of the opposition meet would be announced after both the leaders discuss the basics of the meet with Pawar and Thackeray. There is an urgency among the leaders to decide common strategy soon after the Karnataka assembly results are out on May 13.
Enthused at the success of his mission, with almost all the opposition leaders cutting across the party line and ideology reciprocating positively to his move, Nitish is getting ready to hold a formal “chalking out of strategy” meet of opposition. But before announcing the date he would prefer to have one more round of consultation with the Congress leadership. Congress spectacular performance in Karnataka, as projected in several exit polls, if comes true, the Party will be in a stronger position to bargain. The Congress which till recently did not receive an appropriate earshot from some other opposition leaders has emerged as the powerful decisive factor.
Coming back to Patna after his meeting with Navin Patnaik at his Bhubaneswar residence, Nitish had made it clear that he was not in hurry to convene the opposition meet and his attempt would be to ensure maximum participation of opposition leaders at the future meet. “We are making efforts to unite more and more parties in the country against the BJP-led central government. I recently met several opposition leaders. Now I will talk to other non BJP parties … My aim is to unite opposition parties before the general elections,” he had said.
He has been waiting for the Karnataka election to conclude. Now since it has concluded, Nitish has become proactive. Incidentally just a day ahead of the Karnataka election, he had said; “Once Karnataka election is over, we will finalize the venue of our meeting. If Patna is unanimously decided as the next venue of the meeting of opposition leaders, it will be held here”.
It may be recalled that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after meeting Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, in Kolkata on April 24, had suggested Nitish to hold the meeting of all non-BJP parties in Patna to discuss opposition unity before the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Only on Wednesday, on his way back home from Bhubaneswar after meeting Navin Patnaik, he along with deputy Tejashwi Yadav held a discussion with Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren for around one hour at the latter’s residence. After the meet he said; “Our talks centred around forming a united opposition and the result of the discussion will be visible in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. We will oppose attempts by the Centre to make changes in history. We will also restore Hindu-Muslim unity”.
His maintaining the political posture that he had “no prime ministerial ambitions” and was looking forward to play a “positive” role in forging opposition unity against the ruling NDA at the Centre, has done a miracle and has helped him earn huge laurels amongst the opposition fraternity.
It was in the chain of his meetings with the opposition leaders that Nitish met the Odisha chief minister Navin Patnaik on Tuesday. Though after the meet, Patnaik refused to admit before the media that they discussed the Opposition alliance issue, he was aware of the purpose of Nitish’s visit. The message was sent before hand to Patnaik. Even after aware of the resolution, he had extended invitation to Nitish and his colleagues. Apparently it may look like failure of Nitish’s mission, but in reality it has got a positive message.
Though senior BJD leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, a close associate of Navin said, “Kumar wants a reformative and alternative front in the country. He may discuss the matter with Naveen Patnaik. But Patnaik has already made it cleared that BJD will maintain equidistance from both Congress and the BJP”, it is an open secret that Nitish is not a political naïve to invest his precious 120 minutes for simply renewing his socialist camaraderie without expecting any return.
The sources maintain that Patnaik during his one to one meeting with Nitish did not disappoint him. The unity move is still in its early stage. Patnaik can wait for the right time and occasion. Owing to his political compulsions he would not prefer to come out openly in support of Nitish’s move, but he also does not nurse any antagonistic approach towards it. Patnaik had long association with the BJP. He was a member of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Cabinet from 1998 till 2000. In 2000, the BJD-BJP alliance won the Assembly election in Odisha, and Patnaik became the Odisha Chief Minister.
But in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Patnaik walked out from the alliance with the BJP and decided to stay neutral to it, as well as the Congress party and other political outfits. Since 2009, Patnaik has not entered into any alliance with any party in what is described in political circles as his policy of “splendid neutrality”.
Though Patnaik has been adhering to his policy of maintaining political neutrality, the BJP has become sceptical of his future moves. In fact the predicted defeat of the party in Karnataka has started the process of deep churning in the party. It is said that Patnaik would make any nature of decision only after the results of the assembly election to five other states. In fact the BJP leadership is wary of Nitish’s move to bring together the former socialist leaders. This according to them is an indirect move to make Patnaik a part of the opposition unity. (IPA Service)
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