Oppn meet near, ‘ill’ Nitish cancels Tamil Nadu trip; Stalin seeks to dispel doubt: ‘I will be in Patna’

Cong, JD(U) deny problems, attribute Nitish cancellation to health issues; Stalin is all praise for Bihar CM, says "he will light first lamp of democracy"

Nitish Kumar, MK Stalin, Political Pulse, Indian Express

Nearly 20 Opposition parties are scheduled to meet in Patna on June 23. Nitish's presence at the Kalaignar event would have provided the right optics ahead of the gathering. (File)

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar Tuesday called off a trip to Tamil Nadu for the inauguration ceremony of a memorial in honour of DMK founder M Karunanidhi at the last minute, with the party later citing health reasons for it. The development comes three days before the grand Opposition meeting scheduled in Patna, where the DMK is one of the confirmed guests.

In Nitish’s absence, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and Water Resources Minister Sanjay K Jha attended the event.

Nearly 20 Opposition parties are scheduled to meet in Patna on June 23. Nitish’s presence at the Kalaignar event would have provided the right optics ahead of the gathering.

His decision to cancel let off speculation about Nitish not taking kindly to the Bihar Congress’s projection of Rahul Gandhi as “future PM” as part of its grand welcome for the Congress leader for the Patna meeting. Some suggested that the Congress is uneasy about the rising stature of Nitish as regards the Patna meeting, and the JD(U) chief might have sensed that a well-publicised photo-op with Stalin — a Congress ally in Tamil Nadu — just ahead of the Opposition meeting was avoidable.

From the Urdu Press | Oppn’s mega Patna meet to Sule anointment as Pawar heir to ‘limits’ of Modi charisma

Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari dismissed this, saying: “We surely take Rahul Gandhi as future PM, but everyone knows he cannot contest the 2024 polls (following his conviction in a defamation case). Nitish Kumar did not go to Tamil Nadu because of health reasons, and people are making a mountain out of a mole hill.”

JD(U) chief national spokesperson KC Tyagi told The Indian Express: “There is nothing wrong in a party seeing its leader as future PM, but that is not an issue here (at the Patna meeting). Our idea is to make the Patna meeting a grand success. Nitish Kumar did not attend the M K Karunanidhi memorial function because of health reasons.” He also spoke of how much effort Nitish had put in to bring the varied Opposition parties together on one platform in Patna.

Stalin seemed keen to dispel all doubts too. At the Kalaignar Kottam function held in Chennai, part of the centenary celebrations for Karunanidhi, the DMK chief pressed “the need to defeat the BJP in 2024”. Equating democracy to a lamp lit at home and dictatorship to a wildfire, Stalin said there was an “urgency to quench the wildfire”, which he claimed had “spread across India since the BJP came into power in 2014”.

Also Read | Road to 2024 | The great Opposition unity plans, and the many imponderables

He stressed that he was looking forward to attending the Patna meeting. “In Patna, CM Nitish Kumar is going to light the first lamp of democracy to douse that wildfire. I am also going to Patna. I am telling you with complete trust, I am also going to Patna representing the legacy of Karunanidhi,” Stalin said. “If I don’t (go to Patna), the legacy of Tamil Nadu, which is thousands of years old, will be erased.”

Stalin called “upon the people of Tamil Nadu and the admirers of Karunanidhi to aid in quelling the wildfire”. He said a repetition of the BJP rule would be “detrimental to Tamil Nadu, its culture, and India’s future”. “We need to replicate the same successful, secular collective of parties in Tamil Nadu across India. Victory is essential, and unity is paramount for that,” said the Tamil Nadu CM.