AICC General Secretary and party Bihar unit in charge C P Joshi, Bihar Congress state president Ashok Choudhry and the party members in the Bihar Legislative Council were also present during the meeting.
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JD-U leaders say the event – where the star attraction will be RJD chief Lalu Prasad – will mark a new beginning of opposition unity in the country.
Summary: “Nitish called the PM and many other prominent politicians to personally invite them for the swearing-in ceremony”, said a JD(U) leader.
According to the sources many people will be coming in the oath ceremony of Bihar from the state as well as from neighbouring states also.
Congress leader Tom Vadakkan, who was reacting to Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha’s criticism of the BJP top brass for the debacle in Bihar, used the occasion to take potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Till the debacle in Bihar, the only upset the party had suffered was in the Delhi assembly election in February. “Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy will represent him at the function”, he said.
Mr Prasad, who jointly steered the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine to a stunning victory, will be present tomorrow along as well as JD(U) president Sharad Yadav. They are Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, Sikkim CM P K Chamling, Manipur CM O Ibobi Singh and Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray himself was invited by Mr Kumar but he has expressed his inability to attend the ceremony. If it was Narendra Modi who won round one against Nitish in 2014 by becoming PM and the NDA winning 31 of 40 Bihar Lok Sabha seats, Nitish has won round two in this clash between them. “Kumar wanted to invite all prominent leaders just to celebrate the victory of Bihar”, senior JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak said. Also, written invitation from the former’s office received on Tuesday.
Kumar’s third term at the helm will be kicked off at an event that will include a star cast of opposition leaders.
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The official guest list has names of nine Chief Ministers, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. “But any healthy political discourse would have looked it this way”, he added.
