Sonia tells Lalu, Nitish to meet her again after Cong gets new president

New Delhi, Sep 25: Sonia Gandhi on Sunday asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to meet her again after the Congress gets its new president.

"We have to bring all opposition parties together to defeat the BJP. The Congress is in the process of electing its new president and Sonia Gandhi told us we will meet again after the election," Yadav told the media after the meeting with the Congress interim president on Sunday evening.

The meeting at Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence is being considered very crucial in forging an opposition unity as efforts are on to reconcile differences between the Congress and some regional parties that have been at loggerheads traditionally. This was Bihar CM's first meeting with Gandhi after he ended ties with the BJP and joined hands with the RJD and the Congress to form the government in Bihar in August.

"All opposition parties on the same page in the fight against the BJP and discussion on a concrete plan of action will happen later after the election for the post of Congress president," PTI quoted Kumar as saying.

The nomination process for the election to the Congress president's post is underway and the polling, if needed, is scheduled for October 17. Earlier in the day, Kumar called for uniting all opposition parties, including the Congress and the Left, to take on the BJP and said this "main front of opposition" will ensure that the saffron party loses badly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

JDU and RJD chiefs are likely to approach Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana, Left in Kerala, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), Odisha's Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC) in Jammu and Kashmir, ANI sources said earlier.