Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday called on his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren in Ranchi and said their meeting aimed at uniting the opposition to challenge the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls was “satisfactory”.
The Janata Dal (United) leader, who leads a coalition government in Bihar, has been meeting leaders from various parties as part of his campaign for the last several months.
Addressing a joint press conference at Soren’s residence in the Jharkhand capital after the meeting, Kumar, flanked by Bihar’s deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, recalled his “relationship” with CM Soren’s father and JMM patriarch Shibu Soren, saying the old friends are going to work together in future.
“We all know the relationship I share with Shibu Soren. He was instrumental in making me chief minister for the first time. We were together until Jharkhand was created in 2000. We have been in touch, but we have not met due to the Covid pandemic. We will work together in future to prevent people from trying to rewrite history of the country,” said Kumar.
In an apparent swipe at the BJP without naming the party, the Bihar CM questioned the saffron party’s role in the freedom struggle. “They are celebrating 75 years of independence. But where were they on the first Independence day,” he said.
Hemant Soren, who is also JMM’s working president, is leading the JMM-Congress-RJD combine government in Jharkhand. While leaders from the JD-U, RJD and JMM were present in the meeting and the press conference, there was no Congress leader.
Both Kumar and Soren, however, played it down, saying all parties are in the loop.
Addressing Nitish Kumar as his “guardian”, Soren said, “A discussion has been going on across the country about the status of democracy and democratic institutions. The discussion today reached Ranchi. We had a brief discussion on it today. We will continue to ensure how we arrive at a common ground. He is our guardian and I expect to get guidance about how we can protect Jharkhand’s identity and country’s unity.”
