Mamata Banerjee Says "No Ego" As Nitish Kumar Pitches Op 'Opposition Unity'

 

He is later scheduled to fly to Lucknow to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, claimed that there is "no ego" regarding a grand alliance of anti-BJP parties and that it will be the people vs. BJP in the general elections of next year following a brief meeting with her counterpart Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav today. She asserted that she had previously stated that she had no problem with the like-minded Opposition parties coming together for the crucial election contest.
"I only asked Nitish Kumar for one thing. The movement of Jayaprakash (Narayan) ji began in Bihar. 
We can choose our next destination if we hold an all-party meeting in Bihar. But first, we need to send a message of unity. I've previously stated that I have no objections. I want the BJP to disappear. She addressed the media with the two top Bihar politicians by her side and declared, "They have become a major hero with the media's support and lies.
She stated regarding the one-seat, one-candidate electoral system put forth by Nitish Kumar's party that "if thought, vision, and mission are clear, there will be no issues."
Nitish Kumar described it as a "very positive discussion" in which they talked about getting ready for the next elections in every way possible.
"Those who are ruling now, have nothing to do. They are just doing their own publicity. Nothing is being done for the nation's development," he said.
On a mission to bring together opposition parties who have no love lost for Congress, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had earlier today reached the West Bengal state secretariat in Kolkata to meet Ms. Banerjee in his push to forge a grand alliance against the BJP. Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav are later scheduled to fly to Lucknow to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Both Trinamool Congress and SP have not been keen on sharing space with the grand old party.
Akhilesh Yadav has made it clear that he has no interest in a font that includes the Congress -- attending a few meetings with like-minded opposition parties, including Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. He had not pulled punches either after crashing in the 2017 polls, which he contested in alliance with Congress.

Recent efforts to coalesce against the BJP gained momentum with the meeting between Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav, after Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from serving as a Lok Sabha MP. One of the most vocal opponents of the Congress, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, has also met with Nitish Kumar. Kejriwal acknowledged that it was "extremely necessary" for the entire opposition and the nation to unite and overthrow the administration at the Centre.
According to sources, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United (JDU) has suggested what is known as the "Nitish formula" for opposition unity.

"The only way to win against Narendra Modi is to follow a one-against-one policy in 2024, which means one seat, one candidate from the opposition against the BJP candidate," said senior Janata Dal-United leader KC Tyagi.

The one-against-one formula to prevent a split in the opposition vote, which worked in 1977 and 1989, is being seen as a potent weapon against the BJP and PM Modi's election juggernaut, though some political commentators say there's not much confidence that the rival opposition parties can agree on a truce.