According to Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, the opposition will host a meeting in which many parties would take part. His comments were made following a meeting with Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, who is in charge of organising the opposition parties to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. In support of his campaign, Nitish Kumar has been meeting with various opposition figures; the most recent being with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, head of the Congress. The discussion, which was focused on the gathering of the opposition parties, according to Venugopal, who was also there, was productive.
“Attended a meeting at Hon’ble Congress President Sh. @kharge ji’s residence along with Sh. @RahulGandhi ji, with Bihar CM Sh. @NitishKumar ji and JD(U) President Sh. @LalanSingh_1 ji. We had a fruitful conversation about the upcoming opposition parties’ meeting and will decide the date and place of the meeting in the next two days. We are committed to building a consensus among all like-minded parties,” Venugopal tweeted. After the meeting, he told the reporters that the date of the next meeting would be revealed shortly. “Opposition parties will meet. The date and place of the meeting will be announced within 1-2 days. A vast number of parties will be taking part in the meeting,” he said.
On Sunday, Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav met with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the nation’s capital and offered their support to the AAP leader in opposition to the Centre’s enactment of an ordinance that is perceived to have invalidated the Supreme Court judgement transferring control of “services” to the Delhi government with some exceptions. Kharge and Rahul Gandhi also met with Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav last month.
After the Congress party won a resounding win in the state, the Bihar chief minister also went to Bengaluru to witness Siddaramaiah’s swearing-in as the new chief minister of Karnataka. After the outcomes, Kumar had told reporters, “Efforts are underway to unite the opposition as it would be in the interest of the whole nation.” “They (Congress) had a massive win (in Karnataka). If Opposition parties come together, that will be in the interest of the nation, efforts are underway for that,” Kumar had said. Before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar has been engaging with opposition figures to “strengthen the bloc” opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With his proposal for a “united opposition” that he believes can compete with and defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Kumar had captured the attention of the country.