Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said he was not able to attend the proposed December 6 meeting of I.N.D.I.A alliance as the JD-U leader was down with the fever. The crucial meeting was postponed because of the non-availability of several key leaders, including Kumar, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The meeting was scheduled to chalk out to plan to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024.
"I want that work should progress. It was being said in the news that I was not going to attend the meeting. I was down with a fever. Is it possible that I will not go to the meeting? In the next meeting of the alliance, we should chalk out a plan for the future," said the Bihar CM
There were murmurs that I wouldn't attend the meeting, it was nonsense, whenever the next (meeting) would be held, I would definitely go, he added.
Congress responds to Kumar's remark
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said, "A few people said that they did not receive information regarding the meeting that was scheduled for today. Someone said that they were ill. Someone else had a wedding in the family. So, keeping everyone's convenience in mind, it was postponed to 17th December. So, an informal meeting of Floor Leaders was held at the residence of Mallikarjun Kharge. I don't understand why the BJP is bothered. They have dictatorship, we have democracy."
Earlier, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said his party chief has no plan to attend the meeting. When asked if the decision was taken after the declaration of assembly poll results in four states, the spokesperson said there was no information about the meeting earlier.
Mamata Banerjee on Dec 6 meeting
Banerjee on Monday said she won't be able to attend the upcoming opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting scheduled in Delhi on December 6, citing prior engagements in North Bengal. She said she was unaware of the meeting date and indicated that had she been informed in advance, "she would have rescheduled her itinerary."
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