Conspicuous by Absence: Future of 'Third Front' Appears Bleak as KCR Gives Cold Shoulder to Nitish, RJD

The political initiative to create an anti-BJP forum may come a cropper in the absence of unity among the opposition parties, analysts say. In a bid to cobble up a third front ahead of 2024, Telangana chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao held a mega rally in Khammam district with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, and CPI general secretary D Raja. But prominent absentees were Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

Grand alliance without Nitish and Tejashwi?

Nitish Kumar had broken away from the NDA, intending to dislodge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre. However, he has not been given due importance either by KCR or Rahul Gandhi, who is on Bharat Jodo Yatra.

As KCR is opening an anti-BJP front in Khammam, it has been reliably learnt that JD(U) didn’t get an invite to participate.

Sources close to the CMO said that Nitish Kumar didn’t get the invite to attend the meeting and now what the Bihar chief minister intends to do will be decided soon, after the Samadhan Yatra is over.

‘Others are following’

“I had started the idea of forming a front against the NDA. It’s good to see what I had started, others are following it now,” Bihar CM Nitish Kumar told reporters in Buxar.

Not only JD(U), but the Rashtriya Janata Dal also didn’t receive any invitation from KCR, putting the future of a possible third front in danger.

RJD spokesperson Aijaz Ahmed said that his party has not got any invitation from KCR.

Lalu favours Rahul as opposition leader

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar believe that a third front is not possible if the Congress doesn’t work as the centrifugal force. It was evident after the RJD-JD(U) alliance was cobbled together in Bihar and Lalu had facilitated a meeting with Congress high-ups in Delhi.

Sources close to Lalu revealed that he is inclined to support Congress-led Rahul Gandhi in his bid for prime ministerial race as the Gandhi scion is on a nationwide campaign to resuscitate his party’s image further.

Nitish is leading a coalition government in Bihar, of which RJD is a major constituent, while the Congress is also lending it support.

Nitish to start nationwide yatra after Budget session

Nitish Kumar has also not spelt out clearly whether he is going to join the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra as the JD(U) leader is already holding his month-long Samadhan Yatra in Bihar and is likely to remain busy with it till the first week of February.

KCR is uncomfortable going with Congress as the parties are rivals in Telangana, hence a larger alliance is untenable.

Bihar assembly opposition leader Vijay Kumar Sinha said that the third front has no future as it is riddled with a lot of internal contradictions. “There is a mad rush for the PM office and there are many claimants (Ek anar, sau bimar),” he said.

Senior Bihar minister Vijay Chaudhary had a sarcastic reaction, saying how could an alliance be possible without them?

“Everyone is trying one’s best but the effort must be carried out honestly. It’s a question of bringing all parties together, if they all come together then only BJP’s juggernaut could be stopped,” he added.

It must be mentioned that during his Bihar visit in September 2022, KCR stopped short of declaring Nitish Kumar as the opposition’s choice for the PM post, resulting in an abrupt end of the meeting between the two CMs.

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