Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said the Congress must not rest on its laurels and make use of the momentum gained during Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in forging a coalition of parties opposed to the BJP.

I would like to tell my friends in the Congress that the Yatra went very well

The JD(U) leader asserted that such a formation must take shape “at the earliest” (jaldi se jaldi) so that the BJP, which has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha with more than 300 seats, could be bundled out for “less than 100” in the general elections next year.

“I would like to tell my friends in the Congress that the Yatra went very well. But they must not stop at that”, said Kumar, turning towards former Union minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid at a function here.

The occasion was an “All India Congress” organized by CPI(ML) Liberation, which supports the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government in the state from outside, on the theme “save democracy, save constitution, drive out Fascism”.

Kumar insisted that his exit from the NDA last year had brought the curtains down on the BJP’s attempts to expand its footprints in the state “but we need to achieve something similar on the national level”.

Maintaining that he had no ambitions for himself, the longest serving CM, now 71 years old, said “if my advice is heeded, it will benefit the country” as well as parties facing the heat of the BJP’s near hegemonic status.