Mission 2024: Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi to meet Kharge, Rahul today
What's the story
After meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav are set to meet Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Monday.
They are likely to finalize the date for the opposition leaders' conclave to be held in the next few weeks in Bihar's Patna, as suggested by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
Context
Why does this story matter?
Janata Dal (United) leader Kumar is on a mission to unite the opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to prevent the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from winning a third consecutive term.
The opposition parties tried to forge a joint front earlier, with little success.
However, Kumar's call for a "one-on-one" strategy for 2024 seems to have brought opposition quarters into accord.
Strategy
Opposition hoping for united fight against BJP's 'high-handedness'
On Sunday, Bihar's top duo supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi in its tussle against the BJP-led Centre after the latter brought an ordinance to bypass a Supreme Court order confirming the Delhi government's power over its bureaucracy.
The opposition parties are hoping to fight together by pitting a joint candidate against the BJP's candidates to prevent the division of votes.
Meeting
Kumar met several opposition leaders over last month
The duo is likely to meet the Congress's leaders and share the details of the talks they had with other opposition leaders.
Apart from Banerjee and Kejriwal, Kumar met Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar over the last month.
Details
Kumar met leaders not close to Congress
Kumar and Yadav met with Kharge and Gandhi last month, after which the JD(U) leader decided to reportedly reach out to parties that don't have a good equation with the Congress.
Kumar also met Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury and the CPI's D Raja.
However, he hasn't yet met Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao and Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy.