It is a question of who utters I love you first, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said on Saturday, with reference to his party's intent to forge opposition unity and take on the Bharatiya Janata Party juggernaut in Lok Sabha polls next year.
The former Union minister drew the analogy of romance at a symposium he attended, besides Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.
"Honorable chief minister, you made many points, some bluntly and others indirectly", Khurshid said about the speech of Kumar, the Janata Dal-United boss, who had exhorted the grand old party to take the lead in forging opposition unity.
"As far as my understanding of my own party goes, I can assure you that your sentiments are shared by us. But the situation is akin to lovers taking their time to decide who should say I love you first", said the senior Congress leader evoking peals of laughter.
Khurshid, who retains penchant for using colourful metaphors, some of which have landed him in the soup, added cryptically "it happens that sometimes an inexperienced lover is uninhibited enough to make the first move".
Showering encomiums on the Bihar CM and his deputy for giving up their old political hostility, the former Union minister said "the Bihar model serves as a viable alternative to the Gujarat model (of Prime Minister Narendra Modi)".
He also lavished praise on the CPI(ML) Liberation, which had organized the event and supports 'Mahagathbandhan' government in Bihar from outside, for adapting to changed political realities.
"Red is the colour of revolution and like Kabir's famous verse I feel we have all been painted in the same hue", said Khurshid.
