Left parties broker truce among warring Bihar’s grand alliance partners

The Left parties have brokered a truce among the warring Bihar ‘mahagathbandhan’ partners following days of squabble triggered by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to support NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

Sources said JD(U) and RJD chiefs Kumar and Lalu Prasad respectively have asked their leaders to not comment against each other. The Congress too has conveyed to the Bihar chief minister that its leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s attack on him was avoidable. “The Left leadership has worked for a truce as the infighting was not good for opposition unity. Our party will join opposition parties in the Monsoon Session to corner the government over a number of issues,” JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said. Tyagi later joined a protest organised by civil society groups against cases of lynching.

To a question about whether his party will boycott the midnight GST launch event in Parliament if other opposition parties do so, he said it will take a call later. The JD(U) had so far maintained that it will join the exercise as the GST bill was supported by almost the entire opposition and Bihar being a consumption state will benefit from it. He cited farmers’ protest and incidents of lynching as among …read more