The new-found bonhomie between the two archrivals of Bihar politics for over two decades — lalu Prasad-led RJD and the ruling JD(U) led by Nitish Kumar — is likely to make its electoral impact in Assembly bypoll on 11 seats fallen vacant following election of some MlAs in the last lok Sabha polls and resignation of some others. The Assembly bypoll on these seats is expected next month.
After the Rajya Sabha bypoll win on two seats recently, both the alliance partners now are said to be in upbeat mood to bag most of the 11 Assembly seats in the upcoming bypoll. leaders of the alliance lalu and Nitish have already hinted about seat-sharing arrangement between them and the secular parties like the Congress and the CPI.
Recently, Congress leader and AICC general secretary Shakil Ahmad had a close-door meeting with former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Both the leaders, said party sources, discussed the present political situation of the State in detail and chalked out future strategies to counter the surge of the BJP in Bihar.
Party sources, meanwhile, told The Pioneer that the Congress has staked claim for three seats of total 11 in the State Assembly bypolls. Though, no official confirmation on which party would contest on how many seats has come yet, but the political grapevine is that the JD(U) has decided to contest on five seats leaving four to the RJD and two to the Congress.
The Assembly constituencies which have fallen vacant are Rajnagar, Narkatiaganj, Jale, Chapra, Mohiuddin Nagar, Parbatta, Bhagalpur, Banka, Obra, Mohania and Hajipur.Three RJD MlAs Rakesh Kumar alias Samrat Chaudhury, Ram lakhan Ram Raman and Javed Iqbal Ansari had earlier quit the RJD to join the JD(U). They later were nominated as the JD(U) MlCs and made Ministers in the Manjhi Government.
Similarly, two BJP MlAs Vijay Kumar Mishra and Rana Gangeshwar Singh too had quit the BJP and joined the JD(U) to be nominated as MlCs last month. But, for some reasons best known to them, they were not accommodated in the Manjhi Government like the three RJD deserters.Five of MlAs, Ashwani Choubey, Janaradan Singh Sigriwal, Nityanand Rai, Satish Dubey — all from the BJP and Chhedi Paswan who had joined the BJP from the JD(U) on the eve of the lS polls were elected in the parliamentary poll and thereby resigned from their respective Assembly constituencies.
The Obra Assembly seat in Aurangabad fell vacant when the Patna High Court recently declared the election of an Independent candidate Som Prakash Singh as invalid.
Earlier, the RJD MlAs had displayed their solidarity with the JD(U) while casting their vote for their party candidates in the RS bypoll. Two JD(U) candidates Pawan Verma and Ghulam Rasool Baliyawi had won the poll with a thin margin.“It was after their humiliating rout in the last lok Sabha poll, both the leaders who were not seeing eye to eye with each other for the last 20 years joined together to counter the electoral surge of the BJP following Narendra Modi’s magic. The RJD could get only four sets while the JD(U) stumped at just two seats out total 40 parliamentary seats in the State.
Since the State Assembly polls is due next year in October-November, both the leaders decided to come on a common platform forgetting all their bitterness and bites.“They, perhaps, calculated the vote percentage and came to conclusion that if they would not join hands politically they would be decimated forever from State’s politics”, explained a rebel JD(U) MlA.
In the last lok Sabha polls, the RJD along with the Congress and the NCP had got 29.70 per cent votes whereas the JD(U) with the CPI had received just 15.80 per cent of votes. However, the BJP along with its alliance partners lJP and RlSP had bagged altogether 39 per cent votes.“So together the RJD and JD(U) along with their Congress and other alliance partners might score about 45% votes and could check the surge of the BJP in the next Assembly poll,” said a State BJP leader, “but, their gameplan would fail as people of the State don’t want to go into jungle raj once again with Nitish by side of lalu,” he added.
Meanwhile, the dissident JD(U) MlAs have put the party in anther trouble demanding election to the post of JD(U) legislature party leader saying Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi was not elected by the party MlAs but nominated by Nitish. They also claimed that they have written to party president Sharad Yadav to issue directive to the State unit of the party to hold the election through secret ballot.
“If our demand would not be taken up properly we’ll also meet the State Governor and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to issue directive to the Raj Bhawan in this regard,” said the rebel JD(U) leaders. They also claimed that the numbers of dissident JD(U) MlAs have now gone up to 31 and they would take on the ruling party JD(U) in the upcoming monsoon session of the State Assembly from June 27.