Farooq, Mehbooba to attend oppn meet: JD(U) president

Jammu and Kashmir stalwarts Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti will be coming to the Bihar capital next week for the June 23 conclave of parties opposed to the BJP, a key political aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Sunday.

JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan' made the disclosure at the party's Bihar headquarters here.

"Leaders of altogether 18 parties have agreed to attend the meeting. National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, both former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, have also agreed to come", said Lalan.

Earlier, Lalan had said leaders who had given their assent included Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge from Congress, besides Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), M K Stalin (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Akhilesh Yadav (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT).

JD(U) workers expressed their enthusiasm by raising "Nitish for PM" only to be ticked off by the national president who reminded them that the Bihar CM, the party's supreme leader, has repeatedly ruled himself out of the race.

"Nitish Kumar has said again and again that he is not a claimant for the Prime Minister's post. Such slogans will do no good to his efforts to forge opposition unity", said Lalan.

"Please do remember that he had quit the NDA in August last year with the pledge to defeat the BJP. Let us devote ourselves to the cause. After Lok Sabha polls are held and the outcome is as per expectation, all parties can sit together and decide who will be the Prime Minister", added Lalan.