Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav meet Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, pledge to take opposition unity forward

Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav meet Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, pledge to take opposition unity forward

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and pledged to take all opposition parties together for a united front against the BJP.

The meeting at Kharge's residence comes amid talks of like-minded opposition parties coming together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in next year's Lok Sabha elections.

Kharge said this was a historic meeting and it was decided to unite all parties to fight upcoming polls together.

Rahul Gandhi said this is a process to unite the parties and the opposition's vision will be developed together.

"We will take along all the parties together in this ideological battle. We will unitedly fight the attack on institutions and the country and will take an important step in this regard," Gandhi said.

Nitish Kumar said they would try and unite more and more opposition parties. "We will together carry on efforts in this regard," he said.

In a tweet in Hindi, Kharge said, "Will preserve the Constitution and save democracy. Rahul Gandhi ji and we met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ji, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav ji and other leaders, reiterated our resolve to raise the voice of the people together and give a new direction to the country."

The leaders also had lunch at Kharge's residence, where JDU president Lalan Singh, Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Congress leader Salman Khurshid and RJD leader Manoj Jha were also present.

The JDU, RJD and the Congress are in a coalition government in Bihar and the three parties are in talks to bring other opposition parties together on a common platform in their fight against the BJP.

Kumar arrived here on Tuesday and is expected to meet a slew of opposition leaders during his stay in the national capital.

Tejashwi Yadav is also in Delhi as he appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

Kharge has spoken to several opposition leaders recently in an attempt to forging unity among like-minded parties to take on the BJP.

He has reached out to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, and may have a meeting with top opposition leaders in the coming weeks.

(With PTI inputs)