Bihar’s capital Patna was decked up with large stall-like cut-outs named 'mohabbat ki dukan' (shop of love), borrowing a line from a speech by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Other posters that dotted the historic city of Patna included those by BJP supporters, which termed Friday’s opposition meet as ‘parivar bachao’ (save the family), taking a dig at the Gandhi family.
The cut-outs in the shape of a shop offered jars of ‘nafrat chodo, Bharat jodo’ (shun hatred, unify India). Gandhi had last year in Alwar said “nafrat ki bazaar mein, mohabbat ki dukan khol raha hu (In this bazaar of hatred, I am opening a shop of love)”, in an apparent reference to alleged attacks on the opposition and certain sections of society. Colourful posters and banners of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwat Mann and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, among others, were also put up across the city.
The first joint meeting of opposition parties from across the country, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, were held in Patna on Friday. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) leder Uddhav Thackeray, NCP president Sharad Pawar, former Jammu and Kashmir CMs Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and several opposition leaders attended the meeting.
