At a time when a ruling party JD(U) legislator opposed an alliance between his party and RJD in the State, the de facto chief of the party Nitish Kumar on Monday proposed the alliance “to counter the politics played by BJP”. Nitish Kumar also said those who are against this alliance are free to leave the party.
“In the present political scenario in the State and country, there is a possibility of broader alliance of all parties which are opposed to the BJP kind of politics, including RJD in the State,” Nitish Kumar emphatically said.
He further said that he was in favour of an alliance with the RJD, the Congress and left to defeat the BJP in the upcoming State Assembly elections next year.
When asked about the letter written by one of his party MlAs Rajiv Ranjan Singh opposing party’s alliance with RJD, former Chief Minister and party leader Nitish Kumar said though he was not aware about the letter but he would look into it but, if the party takes a decision on an alliance it will be binding on everyone”.
“And, those not agreeing with the decision are free to leave the party… this is the demand of the present political situation,” he said.
Earlier, while opposing the upcoming alliance of his party with RJD, the JD(U) MlA from Islampur in Nitish Kumar’s home constituency Nalanda district Rajiv Ranjan had shot off a letter to Etate party chief Basistha Narayan Singh expressing his reservations.
“I’ve written a letter to State JD(U) president Basistha Narayan Singh expressing strong reservation against the tie-up with RJD against whose ‘jungle raj’ regime our party had come to power,” said Rajiv Ranjan.
He even claimed that over 60 JD(U) legislators held the same view and there would be a strong reaction if the tie-up took place. “The party has to suffer sever blow in the upcoming State Assembly poll too if they formalise the alliance,” he said.
The ruling party JD(U) has already been facing dissidence within the party as altogether 18 party legislators had defied party’s whip and voted against party’s official candidates in the recently held RS bypoll. Four of them are facing termination of their membership while explaining their position before the Assembly Speaker.
The rebel party MlAs have charged that the Assembly Speaker was functioning under the influence of a senior JD(U) leader and he was not impartial while hearing their view on the notice served to them.
Ever since the humiliating defeat of both the parties JD(U) and RJD in the last lok Sabha poll their leaders Nitish and lalu Prasad have come close to join their hands together for their political existence in the Sstate.
However, their closeness has surprised the political circle and the people of the sState as well. “How can Nitish join hands with lalu against whose jungle raj he was voted to power in 2005 and how can lalu come close to Nitish against whom he was spitting venom in the poll campaignIJ””, wondered many in the State.
Meanwhile, the desperate RJD chief lalu Prasad had said that in case of an alliance with the JD-U the vote share of the two parties would rise upto 45 per cent which would be much more than the BJP.
In the last lok Sabha RJD had go 29 per cent while JD(U) had received 15 per cent vote share whereas the BJP along with its two alliance partners lJP and RlSP had gathered 39 per cent of the vote share in the State.