Nitish Kumar Says Have Asked Congress For New Date For Opposition Meet

"We had to put off the June 12 meeting after the Congress and another party conveyed to me that they found the date inconvenient. I have therefore decided to postpone the meet and asked the Congress to suggest a new date after consultation with other parties,” Kumar was quoted in NDTV report.

Kumar as per the report said: "But I have made one thing very clear. All parties which agree to attend the meeting, must be represented by their respective heads”.

“If any party insisted that it be represented by someone else, that would not be acceptable,” he said.

"For example, there was an impression that the Congress may send someone else other than its president. This was something we could not accept", Kumar said as per the report.

Kumar, since his exit from the NDA last year, embarked on a drive to bring together all parties opposed to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Last week, state Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh had said that his party was planning to send "one chief minister and another senior leader" for the meeting.

“This had evoked taunts from the BJP, now in opposition in Bihar, which claimed neither Rahul Gandhi, who is abroad, nor Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, was assigning much importance to the initiative of Nitish Kumar, despite being his ally in the state,” the report mentioned.

It added: “The idea of a meeting of opposition parties in Patna was first mooted by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a press conference she addressed jointly with Kumar.”

It mentioned Kumar meeting TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, Kumar also commented on tragic Odisha train accident that left over 275 people dead and over 1000 injured.

"It is tragic and though I do not like to comment much on such mishaps, I cannot help saying that this government's moves like scrapping a separate rail budget betray its skewed priorities,” said Kumar.

The report said he also spoke at length about his resignation as Railway Minister upon a major train accident in Gaisal, West Bengal, in 1999, which "respected Vajpayee ji was not ready to accept, but relented only after I remained adamant".

The resignation was tendered by Kumar in the thick of Lok Sabha elections and he recalled with satisfaction that when Vajpayee formed a new government and he was back as Railway Minister "all my recommendations with regard to modernisation were accepted and implemented", the report mentioned.

"I did so much even for the state of the current Prime Minister. But he does not like to remember these things", Nitish Kumar was quoted as having said.