The chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, is meeting with Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, to discuss forming a coalition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 national elections. The meeting will take place in Lucknow and Tejashwi Yadav, a leader in the Rashtriya Janata Dal, is expected to attend. Together, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh account for 120 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.
The BJP won 79 seats in the Lok Sabha elections of both states in 2019, but the RJD, Congress, and Left parties partnered with JD(U) to form the Bihar administration, leaving the BJP-led coalition behind. The meeting between Kumar and Yadav is part of efforts to create a strong alliance against the BJP.
Kumar is also scheduled to meet with Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Tuesday and plans to tour the nation to bring together opposition parties to the BJP. In May, he is expected to meet with Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, during a gathering of Bihar’s ruling Grand Alliance in Delhi.
