New Delhi:

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party boss Akhilesh Yadav will both skip Wednesday’s INDIA bloc meeting, sources told NDTV this morning

The Janata Dal (United) leader and Mr Yadav, a former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, become the second and third high-profile leaders to skip the meet called by the Congress, underlining the growing chasm in the group meant to unite the opposition – to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP – ahead of this month’s five state polls and next year’s Lok Sabha election.

Sources told NDTV Nitish Kumar had conveyed his decision to Mallikarjun Kharge, when the Congress chief spoke to him on the phone today to invite him, and said JDU President Rajiv Ranjan and senior leader Sanjay Jha will attend the Delhi meeting on his behalf.

Sources, however, indicated that the other half of the Bihar government – the Rashtriya Janata Dal – is likely to be represented by its top leaders – party patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, may send Ramgopal Yadav, his uncle, to attend the meeting, sources said. Mr Yadav – who has squabbled with the Congress more than once in the past months, triggering talk of an imminent split – reportedly wants a personal invite too.

On Monday, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would not attend either; the fiery Trinamool leader, who also has a tense relationship with the Congress, said she was “not aware” of the meeting and had prior commitments in northern Bengal on the day.

“I am not aware about this (meeting). I have already scheduled a seven-day programme in north Bengal… had I known, would I have kept this programme? I would have surely gone for it. But, because we have no information, I am going for the north Bengal tour,” she said.

In Ms Banerjee’s case, sources said her party may skip the meeting – a move, if true, that will be seen as a signal of sharp discontent within INDIA exacerbated by the Congress’ dismal defeats in Sunday’s Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections.

Mr Kharge called for the meeting Sunday afternoon, after the Congress had taken early leads in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and was in a neck-and-neck race with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. In a cruel twist of fate, shortly afterwards the party fell behind, badly, in all three.

The BJP, eventually, swept all three Hindi heartland states – decimating its rival in Madhya Pradesh and dumping it out of the other two.

All three states were picked up by the Congress in an impressive showing in the 2018 elections.

Tomorrow’s INDIA bloc meeting is expected to chalk out the group’s strategy ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which is now increasingly tilting in favour of an unprecedented third consecutive term for the Prime Minister and the BJP.