Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is in the forefront for Opposition unity, after meeting Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee in Kolkata, rushed to Lucknow to meet Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav here on Monday evening.

Claiming that he is not in the race for prime minister’s post and his effort would just to unite the Opposition to save the country from BJP, Nitish Kumar said talks are underway with all Opposition parties for a united forum in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

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“Who will be our leader will be decided later on when the Opposition unity gets success,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the Bihar chief minister, along with his deputy, Tejesavi Yadav, reached Kolkata to talk to Mamta Banerjee. Thereafter, both the leaders arrived at Lucknow.

Clarifying his stand on the move, Nitish said, “If there is unity in the Opposition, there is no chance of BJP returning to power in the 2024 polls.” However, the JD (U) leader parried a question as to why the leaders were not talking to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati.

On a question whether he was trying to play a role that was played by Jai Prakash Narain(JP) during Emergency, Nitish said, “JP was a big leader and we are just his disciple like SP founder late Mulayam Singh Yadav.”

He said UP and Bihar have common motives to remove BJP for the interest of the country and JD(U), RJD and SP have joined hands along with other political parties of the country. “I am sure that BJP will lose most of the 120 LS seats in UP and Bihar,” he further claimed.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav, assuring his full support to this Opposition unity, called it the need of the time to save the Constitution and democracy of the country and give the people relief from inflation and unemployment.

“We have launched the ‘Remove BJP’ movement in the country and we will be successful in our goal,” he asserted.

Before talking to the media, Nitish, Tejesvi and Akhilesh had a brief discussion at the party office.

The Samajwadi Party has made it clear that it will contest the Lok Sabha elections on its own. Congress or other parties themselves have to decide with whom they will stay. SP President Akhilesh Yadav has also made it clear that the Lok Sabha elections will be fought under the leadership of regional parties in different states.