India
oi-Prakash KL
A reference to Nitish Kumar at a Congress Working Committee meeting on Tuesday led to a brief disagreement over whether the INDIA bloc could have been in a stronger position had the Bihar Chief Minister stayed with the opposition alliance.
The issue came up as the Congress leadership discussed its approach towards the BJP and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar ahead of a meeting of INDIA bloc parties.
During a CWC meeting, Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge stated Nitish Kumar’s exit from the INDIA bloc was inevitable, countering Digvijaya Singh’s view that the alliance could have been stronger had he stayed, ahead of a bloc strategy meeting.
According to sources cited by NDTV, Digvijaya Singh argued during the discussion that the opposition alliance should not have allowed Nitish Kumar to walk away in 2024. He suggested that the political situation could have been different had Kumar remained part of the bloc.
The Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia reportedly disagreed with him and told the meeting that Kumar had already made up his mind to leave and had been looking for an opportunity to move out of the alliance. His departure, she said, was therefore inevitable.
India Today reported Sonia Gandhi as saying: “Thank God Nitish Kumar left on time. He was always meant to go there.”
Mallikarjun Kharge also supported this view. The Congress president recalled that Kumar had earlier indicated that he wanted to concentrate on Bihar politics while continuing to support the opposition alliance at the national level.
The disagreement is significant because Kumar was among the key leaders involved in bringing the opposition parties together before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
His political journey with the two rival camps had already seen several reversals.
Kumar had joined the RJD and Congress in 2015 to form the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar. In 2017, he ended that arrangement and returned to the BJP-led NDA.
He switched sides again in August 2022, breaking with the BJP and forming a government with the RJD, Congress and Left parties. That move put him at the centre of the opposition’s efforts to build a broader alliance against the BJP.
Kumar hosted the first major opposition meeting in Patna in June 2023. Over the following months, his name was discussed for a formal role in the emerging INDIA bloc.
Kharge was later chosen as the alliance’s chairperson, while Kumar was proposed as its convenor. But the arrangement lasted only a few weeks.
On January 28, 2024, Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, ended his alliance with the RJD and Congress, and returned to the NDA with BJP support. He subsequently took oath as chief minister again.
The CWC discussion took place a day before the INDIA bloc is scheduled to meet. The opposition parties are expected to coordinate their response to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and discuss their concerns over the functioning of the Election Commission.
The meeting is also expected to focus on their strategy against the BJP and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
