“Nitish Kumar not going anywhere”: Sanjay Raut dismisses rumours of Bihar CM being ‘angry’ after Opposition meet

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India]: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday dismissed rumours about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being “upset” triggered by his absence at the July 18 press conference of the opposition meeting in Bengaluru.

“Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is not going anywhere. It is Bharatiya Janata Party which is spreading rumours about all this…” Raut said.

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday dismissed speculations that he was ‘upset’ after the Opposition meeting and had said that he was not present in the press conference of the opposition meeting in Bengaluru because he wanted to return to Rajgir.

It all started after Nitish Kumar left for Rajgir in Bihar without attending the presser in Bengaluru last week, giving fodder to BJP to speculate that the JD(U) Supremo was angry and Rajgir was just an “excuse”.

Amid all this, reports suggested Nitish Kumar had raised “objections” over the name of the National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or I.N.D.I.A.

Earlier, Janata Dal-United President Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’ said that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is an anchor of opposition unity and that the name ‘INDIA’ was decided for the alliance through consensus at the meeting of 26 opposition parties in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Referring to media reports that Nitish Kumar had raised questions about the choice of the name of the alliance of opposition parties, Singh had said the JD-U leader did not have reservations.

Notably, the Opposition with 26 parties came up with a name for the alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, announcing that it would be called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA.

The development came as top leaders of 26 Opposition parties from across the country met in Bengaluru over two days- July 17-18 to discuss a united strategy to take on the ruling NDA alliance at the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

This was the second meeting of opposition parties and the third meeting will be held in Mumbai.

Opposition parties have also decided to form an 11-member coordination committee.