Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday that after the Karnataka elections, Opposition leaders will hold a meeting to chalk out a strategy to put up a united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Hindustan Times reported.

“Currently, some leaders are busy in the Assembly poll,” Kumar told reporters. “Once it is over, we will finalise the venue of our meeting. If Patna is unanimously decided as the next venue of the meeting...We will be happy to organise this meeting in Patna.”

The Karnataka elections will be held on May 10 and the votes will be counted on May 13.

After a meeting with Kumar last week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that she had requested that an all-party meeting be held in Bihar. Banerjee had said that the Opposition parties need to send out a message that they were united against the BJP ahead of the 2024 elections.

Kumar, who severed ties with the BJP in August to form a new government in Bihar with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress, seems to be playing a major role in bringing together Opposition parties ahead of next year’s general elections. In April itself, besides Banerjee, Kumar held meetings with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party National Convener and Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Earlier, he had met leaders of the Left parties as well.

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