BJP reaches out to allies; invites Paswan to NDA meet

New Delhi: Several new allies and some former ones, including Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan, may attend the BJP-led NDA meeting on July 18 in a show of strength by the ruling alliance amid hectic efforts by the opposition to unite against the Modi government. Union minister Nityanand Rai met with Chirag Paswan on Friday night for the second time in a week, and the LJP(R) also shared a letter written by BJP president JP Nadda to the young leader, inviting him to attend the NDA meeting. Nadda described the regional party as a key constituent of the NDA and a key partner in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's push for the development and welfare of the poor.

Sources said the BJP president has written similar letters to leaders of various parties, including those the ruling party has reached out to ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha is one of them, and his son Santosh Kumar Suman said that he will attend the July 18 meeting.

He has also received an invite from Nadda, he added. A number of new BJP allies, including the Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the NCP faction headed by Ajit Pawar, several smaller parties from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and regional parties from the northeastern states, are among those expected to attend the NDA meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present at the meeting, seen as the BJP's show of strength of the ruling bloc, National Democratic Alliance, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.