From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s “one-on-one” formula is being acceptable to most of the opposition parties to take on Prime Minister Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In simple terms “One on One” is to have one candidate against the BJP’s contestant on a Lok Sabha seat that ensures direct fight between the opposition and the saffron party which means minimizing division of the Opposition votes.
Nitish is planning a meeting of over a dozen parties in Patna, but before that a show of strength will be made in
Bengaluru during the oath-taking ceremony of the Congress chief minister in Karnataka, with which the BJP has shrunk to 14 out of the 30 states, including two union territories.
The idea of holding a meeting of the opposition parties for forming an united front against the BJP in Patna instead of New Delhi was given by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her discussion with Bihar Chief Minister in Kolkata.
Mamata’s suggestion wasa based on the fact that Bihar has been the symbol of change at the Centre when the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) movement had begun. In her view, the inaugural meeting in Patna would send the right signals across the country.
Earlier, she” wanted to form a non-Congress third front with KCR and Arvind Kejriwal but “One on One| changed her mind when Nitish told her that it would fulfil her wish to keep her turf intact.
However, tough negotiations would be required for ensuring direct fight in states like Assam and north eastern states where there would be many more claimants. Similarly, there would be triangular or multi-cornered contests in states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Nitish has emerged as a consensus choice to be the convener of the proposed united front. He may get the position since he has travelled to various states and held meetings with the majority of the leaders of the non-BJP parties.
Days after the Congress scored a decisive win against the BJP in Karnataka, the Trinamool Congress supremo had announced that she was abandoning her plans of going alone in the 2024 elections and proposed a working solution for the opposition parties to resolve differences, in a plan that included the Congress.
The Trinamool chief was among opposition leaders who were against the idea of the Congress playing a central role in a proposed alliance against the BJP for the 2024 polls, even as efforts to stitch a cogent front spluttered.
“Whoever is strong in some place, in their region, they should fight together. Let’s take Bengal. In Bengal, we (Trinamool) should fight. In Delhi, AAP should fight. In Bihar, Nitish ji (Nitish Kumar), Tejashwi (Yadav) and Congress are together. They will decide. I cannot decide on their formula. In Chennai, they (MK Stalin’s DMK and the Congress) have a friendship and they can fight together. In Jharkhand also, they (JMM-Congress) are together and in other states also. So, it is their choice,” she said.
