Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar has travelled across various states to stitch a united opposition with an aim to mount a possible strong challenge to the phenomenon called Narendra Modi in the 2024 general elections.
However, the groundwork that the opposition needs to do before they can actually pose a challenge to Prime minister Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was evident by the fact that they are yet to bury their hatchet and unite for their ‘common goal’.
Nitish Kumar held meetings with the stalwarts of the opposition camp, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi embarked on a Bharat Jodo Yatra. Meanwhile, in Bengal, Chief minister Mamata Banerjee too harped on opposition unity.
Highlighting her famous catchphrase ‘Khela Hobe’, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) reiterated that ‘Khela’ will start from Bengal. However, Didi, as Banerjee is famously known, had inconspicuously left out the mention of the Grand Old Party, which she was once part of.
“The 2024 game will be set up in Bengal itself,” Banerjee said while addressing a party meeting. “Now, we are all uniting. There is Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and Hemant Soren in Jharkhand. We will all unite and defeat the BJP in 2024,” the indomitable Banerjee said.
While Banerjee and Congress share a blowing hot, blowing cold relationship, it appeared both the parties were ready to bury their past during the Presidential election. However, the bonhomie turned out to be short-lived, with TMC announcing their absence from the Vice-Presidential election.
Meanwhile, Banerjee, known for her firebrand attitude, appeared to have regained her mojo in recent times, especially after a host of TMC leaders found themselves in the nets of central agencies.
“They are proudly claiming that they already have 275-300 seats and will win more. They should remember that during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, Congress had over 400 seats, yet they lost the next elections. BJP leaders’ claims of 300 seats will also fall flat,” Banerjee said during the meeting.
Blaming the central agencies for working under the instructions of the BJP, Banerjee said, “They can steal hundreds of crores from banks. There is no ED-CBI investigation to look into the matter. What did they do during Madhya Pradesh’s Vyapam Scam? Fifty-four people had died by suicide. The education minister wasn’t punished. The country cannot be run like this.”