Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday claimed that the Congress was more interested in the elections in five states than preparing for the Lok Sabha elections next year. Addressing a CPI rally in Patna, Nitish said that the INDIA bloc of 28 parties had failed to make any significant headway as the Congress was prioritising the five-state elections over the future of the Opposition bloc.

“INDIA alliance was formed but nothing much is happening. There are Assembly elections in five states. The Congress party is more interested in those. We were all working together to take forward the Congress party but they are not worried about all this right now. They are busy with the five-state elections,” Nitish said addressing the gathering.

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Nitish further said that the INDIA bloc was formed to “protect” the country from those who are trying to alter its history and Congress was given leadership role. “We agreed to assign Congress the leading role. But it appears they will call the next meeting only after they are through with the state elections,” the Janata Dal (United) leader said.

Nitish has been at the forefront of giving shape to the INDIA bloc ever since his meeting with Congres president Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP Rahul Gandhi in May this year. The first meeting of the bloc was held in Patna in June while second meeting came in mid-July. Since then, there has been no significant movement forward in the INDIA bloc although there have been reports of skirmishes between the Congress and the AAP first and the Samajwadi Party later.

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The next meeting of the bloc, which the Congress was expected to call in Delhi on Madhya Pradesh, is still awaited. The first meeting saw a face-off between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress over Arvind Kejriwal’s demand of the grand old party’s backing on the Delhi ordinance. That squabble was settled after Nitish Kumar’s intervention that saw Congress oppose the Centre’s Bill on Delhi services in Rajya Sabha.

The second instance came when Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav slammed Congress over its decision to field candidates on six specific seats despite discussions on seat-sharing in Madhya Pradesh between the two partners. The fight, however, has since subsided with Akhilesh claiming that SP was still part of the INDIA bloc.

The BJP, meanwhile, took a swipe at the INDIA bloc, terming it a ‘tukde-tukde’ alliance that had no vision or mission.

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