Clarion India
PATNA – Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, sharing dais with Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar on Wednesday, took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called for ‘BJP-mukt Bharat’.
“What we need now is BJP-mukt Bharat (BJP-free India),” said Rao, who has been trying to formulate a non-Congress non-BJP front for several years.
That front is yet to take off and there was expectation that Kumar might bring to it the necessary momentum. Bihar Chief Minister, however, made it clear that they have the big picture in mind.
“Why Third Front, we are working on the main Front,” he said. “All opposition parties should come together and raise the slogan for a BJP-mukt Bharat… We will try to unite all Opposition parties in the country,” added Rao, indicating that he was on board with the idea.
“You will see the results that we will bring together with like-minded parties and thrash out all the contentious issues,” he added.
Rao, who reached Patna, held an hour-long discussion with Nitish Kumar, where Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was also present.
Rao, who was the first key opposition leader to meet Kumar after he broke away from the BJP, indicated that the top slot was not a given.
Nitish Kumar, he said, is a “well-known senior leader of the country”. The opposition, he added, will “choose the policy and leader with everyone’s consent”.
The two leaders launched a joint-attack on the BJP, sharing dais at a function in Patna.
Kumar criticised the “excessive prachaar-prasaar” (publicity) and the BJP-led Centre’s alleged lack of sensitivity towards the needs of the states.
