New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not join the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' when it enters his state on January 30, sources said Thursday afternoon. Sources said an invitation was extended last evening - via the Congress' legislature party leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan but Nitish Kumar, already upset by delays to seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha poll, was non-committal about his participation.
The snub comes three days after the Congress' Bihar unit said the Chief Minister "had agreed" to appear at a rally in Purnia district. "In the event of his getting caught elsewhere, he assured (us) a senior leader will be sent to represent his party," senior Bihar Congress leader Chandra Mishra said.
An invitation was also extended to former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal is allied with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United). It is unclear if the RJD will be present, but relations between them and the JDU are on edge now over rumours Nitish Kumar is to return to the BJP fold.
Nitish Kumar was allied with the BJP when they won the 2020 Assembly election, narrowly defeating the RJD led by Lalu Yadav's son, Tejashwi, but he walked out two years later, to the saffron party's fury.
Buzz of a ghar wapsi for Nitish Kumar, added to his apparent rebuffing of the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', means tension within the INDIA bloc - formed amid fanfare in July last year to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP in the April/May Lok Sabha election - is now at an uncomfortable high.
Nitish Kumar is widely seen as the man who made the INDIA bloc possible; the wily politician crisscrossed the country, meeting and convincing opposition leaders to work together to oust the BJP.
However, the Bihar leader - who many believe was key in winning over opposition leaders who don't have a good relationship with the Congress, including Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, has been unhappy since, with stuttering seat-share talks, complaints over a lack of clarity in poll-prep work, and being passed over as a possible INDIA Prime Minister candidate on the list of flashpoints with the Congress.
This latest (and potentially biggest) challenge comes a day after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee all but cut ties with the bloc, insisting her Trinamool will fight all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state under its own steam. Ominously, she also suggested she is reviewing her INDIA membership.
Ms Banerjee, who will not participate in the yatra either, ripped into the Congress this week, accusing the party of failing to observe common courtesy by notifying her when the procession entered her state.
Like Nitish Kumar, the fiery Trinamool boss has also criticised the Congress for dragging its feet over seat-sharing talks; the Congress reportedly wants 10-12 seats in Bengal but has been offered only two.
Ms Banerjee's offer, sources have said, is based on the Congress' abysmal performance in the past two general elections; in the 2014 poll the party won four seats and, five years, later won just two
The Congress, aware its INDIA bloc experiment is on the brink of collapse, reached out immediately.
Comms boss Jairam Ramesh, with Mr Gandhi and the yatra, insisted "all INDIA partners will unitedly fight Lok Sabha polls in Bengal", and General Secretary KC Venugopal said, "There will be an alliance in Bengal... Mamata Banerjee is a serious leader in INDIA alliance. These are small differences."