PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday asked the Congress to ponder who would be benefited in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls if the grand old party doesn’t take a quick decision on the issue of uniting all non-BJP opposition parties across the country.
Addressing a joint rally of seven-party Mahagathbandhan in Purnia town where Union home minister Amit Shah had addressed a rally in September last year, the JD(U) de facto leader further told the Congress, "If you want to get rid of them (BJP), you will have to take a quick decision."
"I am waiting for (response of) the Congress. The sooner you decide. The BJP will not get even 100 seats in the entire country in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, if we unite and contest the election untedly... Jaldi se jaldi bulandi kijiye, hum log toh usi ka intzaar kar rahe hai," Nitish said while turning towards the state Congress chief and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh who represented his outfit at the seven-party rally.
Referring to a strong speculation about formation of a new Union territory after carving out all four districts of Seemanchal and some regions of neighbouring north West Bengal days ahead of Shah’s Purnia rally last year, Nitish said they (BJP leaders) wanted to separate this Seemanchal region from Bihar. "But we protested, and we will not allow this to happen," the Bihar CM said.
Making a clarion call for "wiping out" the BJP in the 2024 polls, Nitish claimed the saffron party would not get even a single Lok Sabha seat, out of total 40, in Bihar as all allies of the Mahagathbandhan are strongly united in the state.
He further warned the people of Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region not to fall prey to a party like AIMIM because any vote to Asaduddin Owaisi’s outfit would ultimately help the saffron party. The AIMIM had won five of 24 assembly seats in the Seemanchal region in the 2020 polls, but four of the five MLAs later joined the RJD and are now with the grand alliance.
Addressing the rally through virtual mode from Delhi, RJD president Lalu Prasad said the saffron party and its parent organisation RSS were making attempts to end the provision of reservation for Dalits and backwards. He said, “The BJP and RSS are extreme opponents to the provisions of reservation, and the PM Narendra Modi is executing what the RSS is liking.”
Referring to a book written by the RSS ideologue MS Golwalkar, Lalu said, “Guru Golwalkar has written two dangerous things in his book ‘Bunch of Thoughts’. First, if a Dalit enters the Kashi-Viswanath temple (at Varanasi), drive him out by beating with shoes. Second, the provision of reservation is a dangerous thing and it must be abolished. These two thoughts are deep-rooted in the mind and blood of the RSS people.”
While the JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh gave a call for making “BJP-Mukt Bharat” (India free of the BJP) after the 2024 polls, the RJD leader and Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav gave slogan like “BJP Bhagao- Desh Bachao” (ran out the BJP to save the country).
Congress State president Akhilesh Singh, the CPI-ML national general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, HAM(S) founder and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, CPM leader Ajay Kumar Singh and CPI’s Om Prakash Narayan also addressed the rally and called upon people to defeat the BJP in the 2024 polls in the state and especially in the Seemanchal region, having four Lok Sabha seats. The BJP won only one (Araria) Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 polls while two (Purnia and Katihar) were won by the JD(U) and the rest one Kishangnaj by the Congress.
