Opinion: On Nitish Kumar's Opposition Unity Meet, Congress Has Its Way

Those who thought the Congress will accept junior partner status in the forthcoming anti-BJP unity talks for 2024 have been proved wrong. A day after the convenor of the conclave, Nitish Kumar, announced that the June 12 meeting had been deferred as the top leadership of some parties were not available, the Congress tweeted that party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi would attend the joint opposition meeting on June 23 in Patna. This set the tone.

Significantly, Nitish Kumar did not announce the new date. The task was assigned to Janata Dal (United) president Lalan Singh and Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav of RJD. Tejashwi Yadav hinted that Congress may have had reservations about the venue while announcing that "all like-minded parties have agreed to hold the big meeting in Patna". Tejashwi credited his ailing father, RJD chief Lalu Yadav, for having incubated the idea of the meeting and said that he and Nitish Kumar had "travelled the extra mile" as part of this outreach.

Nitish Kumar had called off the event when it appeared that some of the 20-odd parties he is trying to corral against the BJP in 2024 were likely to send their second-tier leadership on June 12. He asserted that whenever the meet did take place, he expected the party bosses to attend. He had similarly postponed a meeting he had announced for May 12.

Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray, MK Stalin, D Raja and Sitaram Yechury had RSVP-d for June 12. The Congress had indicated that Kharge was unavailable that day. Rahul Gandhi is in the US and is expected to return a day before his birthday, June 19. The Congress, therefore, was really hinting that its so-called "High Command" would not make it. KC Venugopal's June 7 tweet finally lifted the veil, and the date and venue were announced.