Nitish cancels Chennai trip, Tejashwi to attend event

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cancelled his trip to Chennai at the last minute on Tuesday. He was scheduled to go to Chennai by a special aircraft along with deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav to attend an event there and meet Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin.

Tejashwi Yadav reached the Patna airport at around 11 a.m., and waited for almost half-an-hour for Nitish Kumar. After some time, the Chief Minister’s Office conveyed the message to Tejashwi Yadav that Nitish Kumar was unwell, and was sending Sanjay Jha, the water resource minister, to Chennai.

CM Nitish Kumar along with Tejashwi Yadav had been invited by the Stalin government to attend the inauguration of a memorial for late DMK president M. Karunanidhi in the Tiruvarur district. During the visit, the two leaders were also slated to hold talks with Stalin ahead of the June 23 opposition meeting in Patna.

Nitish Kumar is preparing for the opposition unity meeting scheduled for June 23, and he has already said that top leaders of all opposition parties would be present there.

The leaders include Rahul Gandhi, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, former Jammu and Kashmir CMs Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Left parties leaders Sitaram Yechury and D. Raja.(IANS)