The BJP on Saturday pooh-poohed the possibility of a conglomeration of non-BJP and non-Congress parties and said it was not practical. Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi called it impossible and said no leader of any regional party would accept supremacy of any other leader.
Bihar is an exception, said Modi, where RJD chief lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar of JD(U) made an impossible thing possible by joining hands under adverse circumstances. But, he added, the situation in different States was different and the regional parties were enemy of each other like in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP’s Mayawati would never come together.
Making fun of former J&K CM and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah’s statement in Kolkata on Friday, Modi said he had made a similar statement in November last year when he came to the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar and had said the JD(U) leader should be the PM face and now he said same thing in Kolkata about Mamata Banerjee.
Criticising Nitish for his dream to become PM, Modi said in last general election JD(U) could win only two seats and even if his party wins a dozen seats in 2019 election which party would accept him as leader. Nitish tried to expand his base by wooing Rashtriya lok Dal of Ajit Singh and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha of Babulal Marandi but none of them agreed for merger with JD(U). “They are not ready to sacrifice their identities to further the interest of Nitish,” said Modi.