With the State JD(U) president announcing on Sunday that his party would be contesting the upcoming Assembly bypoll in alliance with the RJD, the election is all set to be the first litmus test for both the BJP and the new found alliance between the two rival parties. The Assembly bypoll on 10 seats is scheduled to be held on August 21. Both the BJP and JD(U) held State executive committee meeting on Sunday to mull over forthcoming election strategies.
Setting speculation aside, State JD(U) chief Basistha Narayan Singh made it clear that his party would contest the upcoming bypoll “along with RJD whereas, seat sharing will be decided by the leaders of both the parties”.“It is not a big issue as our target is to defeat communal forces in Bihar. And, the JD(U)-RJD alliance will sweep the polls with big margins,” declared Narain.
Ever since their humiliating defeat in the last lok Sabha poll, both the rival parties for nearly two decades RJD and JD(U) were exploring options for political existence and thereafter, joined hands together to take on BJP in the upcoming State Assembly poll scheduled to be held in October-November next year.
Meanwhile, party sources said that the RJD had staked claim over six seats while leaving four for JD(U) and Congress parties.“Contesting on number of seats will not be an issue once the alliance would be struck and leaders of the parties would sit together to decide on it,” said the State JD(U) president.
The ruling JD(U) held State executive meeting on Sunday to mull over the strategies for the upcoming bypoll and Assembly polls. The party leaders were not allowed to carry their mobile phones in the meeting.Earlier on Saturday, Election Commission had announced August 21 as the date for the bypoll on 10 seats with the results to be announced on August 25. The Assembly seats where the bypoll would take place are Narkatiaganj, Rajnagar (SC), Chapra, Hajipur, Mohiuddinnagar, Parbatta, Bhagalpur, Banka and Mohania (SC).
Meanwhile, the BJP too has started its preparation for the upcoming challenge from its adversaries in the State. The party on Saturday began its two-day State executive committee meeting and sounded the bugle for the upcoming Assembly as well as bypoll on 10 seats.Buoyed with the results of last lok Sabha poll, the BJP leaders also declared to win 175 of the total 243 seats in the coming Assembly elections.
“It will be a straight fight between the BJP-led NDA on one side and the rest of the parties including the JD(U), RJD, left and the Congress, on the other. The party could easily get two-thirds majority, for it had led in 175 Assembly segments in the last lok Sabha polls,” said party national general secretary (organisation) Ram lal.
While attacking the ruling party and its likely tie-up with the RJD he further said that while “the NDA represents good governance, the other combination symbolises jungle raj”.The executive committee also proposed to launch a decisive campaign against the “immoral and opportunistic” alliance between both the JD(U) and RJD along with Congress in the State.
The BJP meeting was attended by all the organizational heads, party's Union ministers, MPs and legislators and almost of them attacked the ruling party JD(U) and its leader Nitish Kumar for practicising opportunistic politics.Setting the agenda for the executive the State BJP chief Mangal Pandey said that the result of the last lok Sabha polls had made it clear that people from all sections of the society joined the BJP fold and now they want the BJP Government in the State as well for its growth and development.
He also declared party's mantra to win the poll as "booth jeete to chunao jeete (if we win the booths, we can win the elections).However, political pundits of the State believe that with the new political realignments in the State the upcoming Assembly poll would be an interesting election to watch. "But before that the bypoll on ten seats is definitely going to be the litmus test for both the alliance parties", said a political observer.
The BJP MlAS Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Ashwani Choubey, Nityanand Rai, Chhedi Paswan and Satish Chandra Dubey were elected to the lok Sabha while three RJD MlAs Samrat Chaudhary, Ram lakhan Ram Raman and Javed Ansari had resigned recently after rebelling from the party. later, they were nominated to the legislative Council and made Ministers in Jitan Ram Manjhi Government.
Similarly, two BJP members from Jale and Mohiuddinnagar Vijay Mishra and Rana Gangeswar Singh respectively too had resigned from the party to join JD(U) before Parliamentary poll.