“The Congress is the largest party in the Opposition, which makes it natural for the party to initiate alliance talks and work towards forging unity among the smaller, non-BJP outfits,” Nitish said while addressing the media after his weekly Lok Samvad in Patna on Monday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday that the Congress party should take the initiative to form a “Mahagathbandhan-like” alliance at the national level, which will be “maha-safal” (a grand success) in stopping the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) juggernaut in the 2019 general elections.
“The Congress is the largest party in the Opposition, which makes it natural for the party to initiate alliance talks and work towards forging unity among the smaller, non-BJP outfits,” Nitish said while addressing the media after his weekly Lok Samvad in Patna on Monday.
The Bihar CM said he had also talked about a national-level grand alliance with members of the Left Front to check the BJP. “The left has an image of being an impartial front. I have talked to leaders of the CPI and CPM to take the lead in uniting the Opposition ahead of the 2019 general elections,” said Nitish, who has been successfully heading the JD(U)-RJD-Congress grand alliance in Bihar since November 2015.
On being questioned about the perceived “bleak” prospects for non-BJP parties after the 2017 Assembly election results, he said, “The BJP has won only Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The mandate of the largest party in three states was given to the Congress, though the saffron party eventually formed the government thanks to permutations and combinations. But every state has its own set of issues and conditions and there are elections every year.”
Citing the example of Uttar Pradesh, Nitish said, “Had the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance fought the polls along with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), forming a Bihar-like alliance, the results would have been different. The combined vote percentage of the SP, BSP and Congress is 10 per cent more than what has brought the BJP to power in that state.”
Nitish, who is also the JD(U)’s national president, stressed on the need for smaller parties to set their own agenda. “People are being entangled in unnecessary issues like illegal abattoirs being shut down, instead of holding discussions and debates on the real issues. It is but natural that anything that is illegal will not be allowed,” he replied on a question relating to the closure of some illegal slaughterhouses in Bihar.
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