As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar steps up his efforts to form a united opposition ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said the state’s ruling grand alliance will stop the “Narendra Modi bandwagon” as his father Lalu Prasad did. “Advani’s Yatra.” The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader accused the ruling BJP at the Center of “failing to fulfill its promises” and “promoting the ‘Hindu versus Muslim’ binary” whenever its shortcomings were pointed out.
“But rest assured that as long as leaders like Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar are around, no one will dare to do such a thing… The land is not one’s father’s property,” Yadav said to wild applause.
“Lalu stopped the rath (chariot) of L K Advani. Now ‘Mahagathbandhan’, led by Nitish Kumar, will stop the rath (Narendra Modi),” Bihar Deputy CM said.
Tejashwi was speaking at an event in Patna organized by the State Handloom Cooperative Union.
In 1990, then Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav famously halted Lal Krishna Advani’s nationwide ‘rath yatra’ in Sitamarhi district at the height of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. Several incidents of communal violence were reported from the states through which the ‘rath yatra’ passed.
Referring to Kumar’s opposition unity, Tejashwi said he was trying to ensure that Congress and regional parties come together.
“If these people (BJP) come back to power, this country will be destroyed,” he said.
Yadav alleged that attempts were being made to rewrite the country’s history.
“It seems as if there is a dictator in the seat of power and we are forced to obey his orders. The constitution is being played with. Nothing worthwhile has been achieved,” he claimed.
“Promises were made (by the powerful) like two billion jobs, ₹15 crore in every bank account, doubling of farmers’ income by 2022…none of it has been fulfilled. When we raise questions about these failed promises, they try to divert public attention by talking about Hindu versus Muslim, temples versus mosques,” the RJD leader said.
The much-awaited 2024 strategy meeting of the opposition parties will be held in Patna on June 23, in which Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi are also expected to attend.
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