Mumbai May 11 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejasvi Yadav on Thursday met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray here in their bid to cobble up an anti-BJP alliance at the national level.

Along with them, Janata Dal (United) national president and MP Rajiv Ranjan, Bihar assembly speaker Deveshchandra Thakur and minister Sanjay Kumar Jha were also present during the two separate meetings.

During both meetings, the deliberations centred around a plan regarding the role of leaders of various opposition parties as part of efforts to cobble up a grand opposition alliance against the BJP at the Centre ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.

In the meeting with Pawar at his residence Silver Oak, his daughter MP Supriya Sule was also present. Pawar has extended support to Kumar's initiative to unite the opposition, sources present during the discussions said.

The Bihar delegation's meeting with Maharashtra leaders took place on the day when Supreme Court in its order declined to restore the erstwhile Thackeray government even as it said the then Maharashtra Governor had no objective material, to call for a floor test in June, 2022.

Kumar expressed solidarity with Thackeray, stating, “The court’s verdict rectifies the significant injustice done to Uddhav Thackeray. We stand united.”



Hoardings welcoming Nitish Kumar and Tejasvi Yadav had been put up in Mumbai.

At the airport national secretary of JDU Kapil Patil, an MLC from Maharashtra, state congress working president Nasim Khan and a large number of party activists welcomed Nitish Kumar and others.