NITISH’S MUSLIM CARD 

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has followed a new strategy to prevent the division of the Muslim vote bank in Bihar. He had held a closed door meeting with Muslim intellectuals belonging to different sects. With due effect, Nitish Kumar appealed to the intellectuals to remain on high alert against the divisive forces and warned the Muslim community to be cautious of MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM, which according to him is the B team of BJP. Kumar has been on a mission to unite the opposition parties against the BJP and hence met various leaders in September including Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, former Karnataka CM and Janata Dal-Secular leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D. Raja, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav. 

RLD SUPPORT TO YATRA

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and farmer organisations extended their full support to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and participated in his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Western Uttar Pradesh. The yatra there also pointed at the clues along with the possibilities of new alliances, with the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s local leadership mobilising numbers for the march. The flags of the Peace Party and workers of the Bhim Army were also seen. Rahul appealed to the youth, farmers, and workers to not be afraid and said that he had drawn and acquired the motivation for this ‘don’t fear’ attitude from the philosophy of Lord Shiva. 

CONGRESS’S SOUL-SEARCHING

A three-member fact finding committee has been set up by Congress to evaluate the party’s performance in the recently concluded Gujarat assembly elections for rendering suggestive and corrective measures. This committee is to be chaired by the former Maharashtra minister Nitin Raut, who also heads the party’s SC department. The panel has been directed to submit its report to the party within a period of two weeks. The formation of the committee comes in the wake of the Congress’ worst ever performance in Gujarat.