On Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to discuss forming a coalition of opposition parties for the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024. The meeting was described as “positive”, and Banerjee stated that there is “no ego clash” regarding a grand alliance of anti-BJP parties. Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav also met with Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on the same day.
While details of the discussion were scanty, sources say that the two sides used the meeting to plan how to create a coalition that would be workable ahead of the elections. Banerjee had similar meetings with Akhilesh Yadav and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik last month, and Kumar met with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and its president Mallikarjun Kharge earlier this month.
Opposition leaders have been critical of rising unemployment, the falling value of the rupee and rising prices as well as the spending on government advertisements. The BJP dismissed the meeting between the two chief ministers as a “futile exercise” and called the alliance “opportunistic”.
