Embarrassing Video of Telangana State Chief & His Bihar Counterpart at Presser Goes Viral
17:10 GMT 01.09.2022 (Updated: 19:51 GMT 31.10.2022)
© AFP 2023 / NARINDER NANU
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Last month, Bihar state chief Nitish Kumar broke the two-decade alliance his party Janata Dal-United, or JD(U), had with the BJP. Since then, he has been viewed by some as the opposition's prime ministerial candidate to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 national polls. However, Kumar has denied that such a move is in the offing.
A press conference of two of the most prominent leaders of the opposition camp -- Nitish Kumar and K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), which was supposedly held to serve up bonhomie, turned into dissent instead.
KCR, the Telangana state chief, visited Patna, where he met Nitish Kumar and his deputy in Bihar's governing coalition Tejashwi Yadav, among other leaders, to chalk out the opposition's strategy for the next parliamentary elections.
However, rather than fostering unity, the press conference featuring Nitish and KCR became the butt of jokes on social media after the Telangana state chief shrugged off questions on who would be the opposition's candidate for PM.
As reporters asked KCR whether he would support Nitish Kumar's candidature for PM in 2024, Kumar stood up from his chair and tried to leave the media briefing.
"Please sit," KCR requested as Kumar stressed: "Let's go."
Kumar and KCR kept exchanging "please sit" and "let's go" remarks with each other, indicating that there was no unanimity as yet within the opposition over who would be its face against PM Modi in the 2024 polls.
If KCR had any hopes of leading the 3rd/4th/5th front - Nitish Kumar has effectively ended those by embarrassing him in the most brutal manner pic.twitter.com/NuskfJLUtP
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) September 1, 2022
As the awkward moment of the press meet began making the rounds on Twitter, several BJP politicians slammed both KCR and Nitish Kumar.
While the BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya accused Kumar of insulting KCR, Bihar's former deputy state chief Sushil Modi, another BJP politician, said that the Telangana state chief had rejected the JD(U) leader as the opposition's PM candidate for 2024.
"Did KCR travel to Patna to get insulted like this? Nitish Kumar didn't even accord him the basic courtesy of completing his point in a press interaction. Nitish was dismissive of KCR's pleas to let him finish. But then that is Nitish Kumar. Self conceited. KCR asked for it," Malviya tweeted.
"KCR didn't even accept Nitish Kumar as a PM candidate and outrightly denied it. Nitish Kumar tried to walk out of a presser when they were asked about it though KCR tried to make him sit many times," Sushil Modi wrote on the microblogging platform.
With the 2024 national polls about 18 months away, KCR has ramped up his meetings with political parties that are not aligned with the federally governing BJP.
While the BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya accused Kumar of insulting KCR, Bihar's former deputy state chief Sushil Modi, another BJP politician, said that the Telangana state chief had rejected the JD(U) leader as the opposition's PM candidate for 2024.
"Did KCR travel to Patna to get insulted like this? Nitish Kumar didn't even accord him the basic courtesy of completing his point in a press interaction. Nitish was dismissive of KCR's pleas to let him finish. But then that is Nitish Kumar. Self conceited. KCR asked for it," Malviya tweeted.
"KCR didn't even accept Nitish Kumar as a PM candidate and outrightly denied it. Nitish Kumar tried to walk out of a presser when they were asked about it though KCR tried to make him sit many times," Sushil Modi wrote on the microblogging platform.
With the 2024 national polls about 18 months away, KCR has ramped up his meetings with political parties that are not aligned with the federally governing BJP.
In Bihar, the Telangana state chief stated that he would do everything possible to bring all opposition parties together to bring an end to the BJP's rule in Delhi.
"Why Third Front, we are working on the Main Front...All opposition parties should come together and raise the slogan for a BJP-mukt Bharat (BJP-free India)... We will try to unite all opposition parties in the country," he said.
Kumar, the eight-time state chief of Bihar, ditched the BJP last month. Since his entry into the opposition camp, speculation has been mounting that he could be the man to take on PM Modi in 2024.
