‘All parties need to come together to defeat BJP in 2024,' says Nitish Kumar at grand INLD rally in Haryana

Several senior opposition leaders, including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury, and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, gathered at Fatehabad, Haryana, on Sunday for the INLD's major rally.

The event commemorates the 109th birthday of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, but it is also considered to be an attempt by INLD chief to unite the Opposition against the BJP.

Recalling his time spent with political veteran Devi Lal, Kumar said, “I can never forget those days when I was young and Devi Lal guided and inspired me.”

Kumar urged the Opposition parties to unite, saying, "If all these parties come together, they (BJP) will not be able to win at all in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections." He went on to say that he talked at length with Sharad Pawarand asked the Congress to join them.

“I would like to seek blessings of Om Prakash Chautala and urge him that he should do get more opposition parties together,” Kumar said, while adding that there is no fight between Hindus and Muslims, it is the BJP which want wants to create disturbances.

JDU leader KC Tyagi addressed the audience, saying the Bihar CM has come from Patna to fight the Sultanate of Delhi at a time when eight former Congress CMs have joined the BJP. Kumar, he claims, has no fear of the ED, income tax, or other government agencies. After declaring that he is not the PM candidate, Kumar also said that there should be just one front, including the Congress, and that only then would the BJP be defeated in 2024.

Bihar deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena also attended the rally being held in a show of opposition unity.

Haryana | NCP chief Sharad Pawar, JD(U) leader & Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, RJD leader & Bihar Dy CM Tejashwi Yadav, SAD's SS Badal & CPIM's S.Yechury attend the event to mark 109th birth anniversary celebrations of ex- Dy PM Devi Lal in Fatehabad, on invitation of INLD's OP Chautala pic.twitter.com/zERIRxZxmr

— ANI (@ANI) September 25, 2022

Badal said the INLD and SAD are true brothers, and that the leaders present at the event can defend farmers' rights, as he urged all parties to work together to demolish the BJP.

Taking a dig at the BJP over farmer suicides and last year’s farmers’ protests, Pawar said, “The farmers of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh sacrificed their lives, they struggled peacefully for a year, but they were booked in criminal cases. Assurances were given that the cases shall be withdrawn, but haven’t been done so far. Today, farmers are forced to keep appearing in courts of law and every hour, we are reading that some farmer somewhere has committed suicide.”

Earlier, Tyagi, a veteran socialist leader, said the meeting will be a historic gathering of like-minded forces against the ruling BJP in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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