Patna: Speculation over the future of the INDIA bloc ramped up Thursday after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar blamed the Congress for lack of progress in preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Mr Kumar said this is because the Congress - one of the group's biggest members and assigned the "leading role", according to the Bihar leader - is preoccupied with state polls; party-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh vote this month, as do Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram.
Addressing a Communist Party of India rally in Patna, Nitish Kumar remarked with a chuckle, "We have been speaking to them... pushing them forward in INDIA alliance. But, of late, there has not been much progress on that front. The Congress seems to be more interested in the five assembly polls."
"We agreed to assign Congress the leading role. But it appears they will call the next meeting only after they are through with the state elections," the Janata Dal (United) leader said.
The last meet of the INDIA group was on August 31-September 1 in Mumbai, after which it was announced the Congress would set the next dates. There was talk it may be in Delhi but no news has emerged since. There was also buzz it would be in Madhya Pradesh but that too did not happen.
Nitish Kumar is widely seen as one of the founding members of the INDIA bloc; in fact, it was the Bihar Chief Minister who sounded out senior opposition leaders on the prospect of uniting to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, using his seniority to act as an intermediary between them and the Congress.
Mr Kumar met Congress boss Mallikarjun Kharge and top leader Rahul Gandhi in May, after which he criss-crossed the country, meeting top leaders, including those like Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who have difficult relationships with the Congress, but came into the INDIA fold anyway.
The first meeting of the INDIA bloc was held in Patna in June, at which Mr Kumar once again had to play peace-maker; this was after the Aam Aadmi Party threatened to boycott the meeting because the Congress had not backed its campaign against the Delhi adminstrative services ordinance.
Nitish Kumar's comment also comes after a squabble between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party over seat-sharing for the Madhya Pradesh election. Akhilesh Yadav claimed an agreement that his party would contest six seats was ignored. "If I knew, we wouldn't have spoken to Congress," he said.
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On Monday, however, Mr Yadav downplayed the fight, telling NDTV he remains part of the INDIA group.
And, in another sign that all is not well between the two parties, they have traded banners hailing their figureheads - Mr Yadav and Rahul Gandhi - as future prime ministers.