Kharge to head INDIA bloc, Nitish offered convener role

All constituents of the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc accepted Congress party chief Mallikarjun Kharge as chairperson of the opposition grouping while most of them, except Trinamool Congress (TMC), backed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar as convener during a virtual meeting held on Saturday, people familiar with the details said.

- Sunetra Choudhury

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to Kumar’s candidature led the alliance partners to keep the decisions under wraps for now, said two leaders present during the deliberations. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar have been asked to convince Banerjee to give her approval to the decision, the leaders said, seeking anonymity.

Kumar in the meeting said he did not aspire for the post of convener, but all members except Trinamool were keen that he take it up. Representatives of the Janata Dal (United), which included Rajiv Ranjan, the party’s former president also known as Lalan Singh, were upset with Banerjee’s opposition coming out in the open.

“Please discuss this with Kharge. Only he is authorised to speak,’’ Singh told HT after the meeting.

Later in the evening, there was a separate in-person meeting at Kharge’s residence between the Congress president and Kejriwal. Both sides remained tight-lipped about what transpired but when asked Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, “it was just a courtesy meeting.” A third person said the reason for the meeting was that Gandhi and Kejriwal had not met in person before. “They had met on various occasions but it was the first time Delhi CM called on him. Coming a day after AAP’s bilateral meeting with party representatives, it was an indicator of the growing willingness to work together and work out a relationship,” this person said.