“Ready to lead the country,” says JD-U candidate Nitish Kumar

The Janta Dal-United or JD-U has proposed Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, as the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections ahead of the INDIA bloc coordination committee meeting. Tuesday, JD-U party president Rajiv Ranjan Singh said to a sizable crowd in Nalanda that Bihar’s chief minister is prepared to take charge of the nation.

According to a report in the Times of India, Nitish Kumar’s party JD-U president said at Nalanda, “Your leader is ready to lead the country.” It’s interesting to note that Nitish Kumar has often denied wanting to become prime minister.

Up to 28 opposition parties have banded together to form an alliance in order to challenge the powerful NDA headed by the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections of the following year. Their coalition is known as INDIA, which stands for Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance.

On Wednesday, representatives from the INDIA alliance’s member parties will meet in a coordination committee to talk about the seat-sharing agreement. The coordination committee meeting in Delhi will also deliberate on joint campaign rallies.

Earlier this month, opposition leaders from at least 28 different parties convened in Mumbai, the world’s financial hub, to discuss their plans for the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. The INDIA alliance group decided to participate in the general elections in the next year “as far as possible” as a unit.

‘Give and take’ seat sharing arrangement will be shortly implemented as INDIA group decides to cooperate in the 2024 local elections

The resolution of the INDIA alliance said, “We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections as far as is possible.”

The Opposition leaders decided to establish a seat-sharing agreement in a “collaborative spirit of give and take” amid the excitement around “One Nation One Election”. A committee has been established by the Modi administration to investigate the viability of holding the Lok Sabha and state elections concurrently. The INIDA bloc’s leaders opted to expedite their seat-sharing deal while condemning the action.

The coalition partners have so far said that their main objective is to defeat the BJP, and that a choice on their leader would be made after the elections. It would be fascinating to observe how the INDIA bloc responds to the JD-U’s desire for Nitish Kumar to become the next prime minister.