The two top leaders of the Grand Alliance in Bihar — Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Lalu Yadav — will meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Sunday. This will be their first meet in more than six years. The two Bihar leaders had also hoped that Rahul Gandhi will be present for the meeting. But Sonia Gandhi is in Kerala, leading the Congress’s Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra.Nitish Kumar and Sonia Gandhi had met last at an Iftaar ahead of Bihar elections in 2015.
The Bihar Chief Minister had met Rahul Gandhi during his last visit to Delhi earlier this month. Mrs Gandhi was abroad at the time for medical treatment. That possibility is being explored by the leaders in Bihar, especially with Nithish Kumar working on knitting the opposition into a cohesive front against the BJP ahead of the 2024 national election. The meeting also comes as the Congress is prepping to elect its next president. The nomination process for the election started on Thursday.
The contest, initially expected to be between Shashi Tharoor and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, may turn out to be multi-cornered, with several leaders including Manish Tewari and Digvijaya Singh expressing interest. During his last visit to Delhi, Nithish Kumar met with most key opposition leaders. The list included Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Nationalist Congress chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Left leaders.