Patna to host Nitish's pitch for anti-BJP unity on Jun 23

PATNA: The much-awaited non-NDA parties' meeting for opposition unity will be held in Patna on June 23. CM Nitish Kumar is spearheading the campaign to bring the maximum number of opposition parties on one platform to give a united fight to the BJP and PM Narendra Modi in the 2024 LS polls.
Making an announcement at a press conference on Wednesday, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, along with deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of RJD, claimed that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his party leader Rahul Gandhi, along with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal among others will attend the meeting, which was earlier scheduled on June 12 but had to be postponed due to the unavailability of the Congress top leaders.
Lalan also claimed that senior leaders from different non-BJP political parties, including Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren besides former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI national secretary D Raja, CPM national secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI-ML national secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya have consented to the June 23 meeting in Patna.
As there was doubt about the Congress reservation on the venue, Tejashwi said leaders of all like-minded parties have given their nod to the meeting in Patna. "A big meeting will be held in Patna," he said and hoped it will have a positive result. He credited RJD chif Lalu Prasad and CM Nitish for the formation of Mahagathbandhan government in the state and working to bring all the like-minded parties on one platform.
BJP tampering with democracy, says Tejashwi
Tejashwi also recalled how he, along with Nitish, had been meeting different leaders in a bid to unite the opposition against BJP.
The RJD leader then attacked BJP and accused it of tampering with the democracy and running the government in a dictatorial way.
Earlier, Nitish had postponed the June 12 meeting citing the unavailability of some of the party heads on that day, Congress had blamed JD(U) for choosing the date without taking into account their consideration.