Unity bid by Janata Parivar: Trinamool, Cong show solidarity

In what appears to be a harbinger of fresh alignment of non-BJP parties, top leaders of Congress, Trinamool Congress, JD(U), RJD, Samajwadi Party and INLD today clearly indicated that they will be coming together to contest future elections.
After the swearing-in of Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar, former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Deve Gowda today made a strong push for unity among the parties to counter BJP, a move supported by several chief ministers, including Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav.
"It will be good if we all come together. We are a collective family and the more we come together, the better it would be politically and electorally," West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee said.

Gowda said it was high time that parties of "similar, secular" thinking came together.
"I am the happiest person today as secular political parties are uniting here in Bihar. I have faith that we all will fight the next general elections together against the BJP," Deve Gowda told PTI at Kumar's swearing-in ceremony.
The 81-year-old former Prime Minister reminisced about his 30-year-old association with Kumar and said it was a pleasure to attend the oath taking ceremony of a colleague of Janata Parivar and a former member of Janata Party, adding that "it was high time that parties of similar, secular thinking came together".

Pointing out that it will be "good" if all like-minded parties come together, Mamata Banerjee said that regional parties were actual grassroots parties, hence better conditioned to think about the needs and welfare of the people. Their unity will help them in their work.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in a scenario of continuously changing politics it was necessary that the parties believing in secular and socialist ideology should come together to take their message to the public.
"Secular policies and socialist ideology should be taken to the masses by the parties that believe in them. It has become more relevant at a time when the world is coming together through Information Technology and market economy," the UP CM said.

"It is necessary that states have governments which believe in secular and socialist principles. Such governments will be able to take care of people belonging to all strata and usher in an all-inclusive development," Akhilesh added.
The first test of any such unity bid will come towards the end of the year when Bihar goes to polls.