A day after BJP president Amit Shah while asking his party rank and file to prepare for Assembly polls in Bihar, called the grand alliance between JD(U), RJD and the Congress parties as “unholy and immoral”, Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday took him on saying “the alliance was formed to collectively fight against the saffron party in Bihar”.
“The BJP is scared of the collective might of our alliance,” said Manjhi while speaking to media persons. He also added that the alliance between the parties could be a precursor to the formation of an anti-BJP front at the national level.“Since we, the secular parties, are concerned with the rise of saffron rule, we want to save the country from this serious threat to its unity and integrity,” he said.
Earlier, while addressing his party leaders and workers in Delhi on Saturday, the BJP chief had slammed the grand alliance between the parties opposed to the NDA saying the BJP needed to expose this “immoral alliance” before people of the State.“Nitish Kumar had come to power saying he was fighting against jungle raj of lalu Prasad but now he has gone and sat in the lap of the same person. In politics, principles matter more than anything else,” exhorted Shah.Reacting on this, RJD chief lalu Prasad too had earlier said, “The BJP now has become jittery over the grand alliance between the parties as it would herald the beginning of the end of their rule”.
“Whenever the country had plunged into political crisis Bihar has started the movement to show new direction and now this alliance too would mark the beginning of the end of the rule of saffron party from the country,” said lalu Prasad.Under their grand alliance both the RJD and JD(U) are contesting four seats each leaving two seats for the Congress in the upcoming by-poll on 10 seats on August 21.
The parties have already started the campaign with the chiefs of the three jointly addressed meeting in Mohania on Friday.However, both the erstwhile bitter political rivals for nearly two decades lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar are yet to come on a common platform to publicly express their alliance but, party sources said, they would jointly campaign a poll meeting on August 16 at Chhapra.
“They will share the platform soon,” Manjhi too confirmed, though he did not mention the date. He, however, again said that Nitish Kumar was the tallest leader of the ruling JD(U). Earlier, Manjhi had raised political row among alliance partners RJD and Congress parties saying that Nitish Kumar would be the chief minister after 2015 state assembly polls.later, at an emergency joint meeting between the alliance parties it was decided that the leadership issue would be addressed later and now the focus should be on the campaign for by-poll on ten seats.
On seats where by-poll would be held altogether six Bhagalpur, Hajipur, Chhapra, Jale, Narkatiaganj and Mohiuddinagar were in BJP’s bag while RJD had three seats Rajnagar, Parbatta and Banka with JD-U having Mohania seat in its pocket.Further, while slamming the BJP ideology as “communal”, Manjhi said that the BJP leaders were intentionally weakening secular fabric of the country by raking up controversial issues like the uniform civil code, Ayodhya and Article 370 of the Constitution.
“If the BJP succeeds in its intention to foist its ideology on the country and its people, the federal structure will be decimated”, he said.later, the state BJP leaders attacked Manjhi for his comments on the party president Amit Shah saying “Manjhi was a puppet chief minister and he said what Nitish Kumar want him to say”.
“In the upcoming by-poll they will come to know how the people of the state have made up their mind to reject this unholy alliance…they will be wiped out from each and every seat”, said state BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav.
The state party president Mangal Pandey said that BJP would form the next government in Bihar after state assembly poll. “The party would repeat the lok Sabha poll performance in the state assembly elections too and we’ll form the next government in the state”, he emphatically said.Meanwhile, former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday shifted to his allotted bungalow 7, Circular Road after a puja performed in the new house.