Patna: Usually open until the late hours, the Patna headquarters of the Janata Dal (United) was unusually quiet around 1 pm Thursday — a day before the Opposition meeting that party leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will chair — with only a handful of men loitering on the premises.
“Ye toh kuch chhutput neta hai, koi bada neta nahi aye aaj (these are small-time politicians, no big leader has turned up today),” said a private security guard posted at the entry gate.
The office of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), located across the road, was still welcoming visitors — primarily party workers from various parts of Bihar and reporters working with local media outlets.
Located a few kilometres away from Vir Chand Patel Path, which houses both the RJD and JD(U) offices, Sadaqat Ashram, the state head office of the Congress, offered a study in contrast — decked up to greet Rahul Gandhi, who will address party workers Friday ahead of the Opposition meeting.
Meanwhile, across Patna, a poster war has erupted over the grand showcase of Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There are hoardings announcing the Opposition meeting, peppered with photos of the participating leaders — from Nitish, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) and their Tamil Nadu counterpart M.K. Stalin (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (Aam Aadmi Party) and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
There are quite a few posters from the Congress stable featuring Rahul Gandhi — seen blowing kisses as well as in his scruffy Bharat Jodo Yatra avatar.
Then there are posters put up by the BJP — one outside its Patna office features photos of the participants and describes them as “Thugs of India”.
Another poster takes a dig at former ally Nitish — now running the state government in coalition with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress — and his political somersaults. It seeks to remind the CM of his earlier assertion that he will never team up with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad ever again.
But the Opposition leaders aren’t particularly perturbed.
“The BJP is rattled by our unity. The language used by them in the posters is absurd,” said JD(U) spokesperson K.C. Tyagi.
“And most of the people they are calling thugs have been with the BJP at some point, be it Mamata Banerjee or [Peoples Democratic Party chief] Mehbooba Mufti, or even the JD(U). So, the BJP has to decide whether it was associated with thugs,” he added.
Most Opposition leaders were, however, tightlipped about the focus of the meeting, which will be held at Nitish’s official residence.
ThePrint had earlier learnt from sources in the participating parties that the meeting would be centred on identifying common issues on which the Opposition can unite, rather than seat-sharing.
Also Read: ‘BJP spreading fire of autocracy’: Stalin vows to join Nitish-led Oppn meet months after migrant row
‘Seat-sharing not a big issue’
Speaking to ThePrint, Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh said the party had, “even before the Patna meeting… held a number of meetings with various Opposition parties on how to rid the country of BJP and RSS”.
“According to me, seat-sharing isn’t that big an issue. All parties will get seats based on their capability. Even earlier we’ve fought elections in an alliance,” he added.
Prasad said a “little bit of push and pull is part of politics”.
“For example, in Bihar, NCP, DMK, and AAP don’t have much ground. But the Left parties, JD(U) and RJD, and even the Congress have a presence here,” he added. “It’s not a big issue.”
Meanwhile, K.C. Tyagi reiterated the need to adopt the ‘BJP-versus-one-Opposition-candidate’ formula.
“The 2024 Lok Sabha election is against the BJP and its wrong policies. Only those parties who think similarly have been called,” he said of the meeting. “All of them, taken together, influence 450 Lok Sabha seats. Our final aim will be to have one Opposition candidate against the BJP in all of these 450 seats. The Opposition should not make statements against each other. Rather, they should all work together to remove the BJP.”
Amid all this, speculation has been rife about the AAP threatening to stage a walkout from the meeting if the Congress did not commit to support it on the ordinance issue against the Modi government in Parliament. However, AAP sources dismissed such talk.
Mamata meets Lalu, Jayant Chaudhury to skip meet
Some leaders started arriving Thursday, with former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti being the first to land. Next was West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who came with her nephew, MP and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Mamata later met Lalu Prasad at his residence.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann also landed Thursday.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Chaudhary Jayant Singh sent in a note of regret saying that he couldn’t attend the meeting due to pre-existing family commitments.
“I hope that this meeting will be an important stepping stone towards Opposition unity,” he said in the letter, which was released to the media. “I congratulate you for this successful endeavour.”
Back at Sadaqat Ashram, Congress leaders — including state in-charge Tariq Anwar — inspected the arrangements for Rahul’s visit during the day.
According to a tentative schedule shared by Congress sources, Rahul and party president Mallikarjun Kharge are expected to arrive around 11.30am Friday. Both will hoist the national flag at the party office, then unveil a statue of B.R. Ambedkar, before addressing a public meeting.
The Congress state unit is not hiding its excitement about the arrival of its “jan nayak”, as the posters address Rahul.
“This is the first time Rahul ji is coming to Bihar after walking 4,000 kilometres from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, against the politics of hate and division,” said Akhilesh Prasad Singh. “We want to give him a historic welcome.”
From village-level workers to top leaders in the state, “all of us will gather to welcome him”, Singh added.
“It is also our good fortune that, along with Rahul ji, top Opposition leaders of the country are gathering in Bihar,” he said. “Bihar is known as the land from where Mahatma Gandhi started the freedom movement.”