Apparently apprehensive of the “rising reactionary forces”, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has thrown her weight behind her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar urging the people of Bihar to vote for him for the sake of “Bihar’s development.”
Banerjee, who had not yet campaigned for Kumar in the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections, on Sunday tweeted in favour of his Patna peer saying she “request you all in Bihar to please vote to re-elect Nitish Kumarji as Chief Minister for greater need of our country and development in the State.”
Banerjee hopes her appeal would mobilise the large number of Bengali-speaking population of Bihar in favour of Nitish Kumar, sources close to the Chief Minister a Trinamool leader said adding the Bengal Chief Minister was planning a larger non-BJP-non-Congress alliance with Kumar being a major component in it.
“India cannot be allowed to languish in the hands of rising reactionary forces who are gradually pushing the country to the realms of a civil war. There is a need to block the progress of these reactionary forces,” a Bengal Minister close to Banerjee said.
On whether Banerjee had plans to campaign for Kumar in Bihar, the senior Trinamool leader said the CM could not go to Bihar for campaigning as “she has been busy with the festive seasons in Bengal.”
There were two main reasons why the Bengal Chief Minister was backing Kumar experts said. “First she wants to keep her Muslim and Bihari votes intact in this State.” Another reason of her backing Kumar is “she knows that after the fall of Bihar and Jharkhand Bengal could be the next target for an ambitious BJP-led Central Government.”
Assembly polls in Bengal are scheduled to take place early next year. Bihar is going through a five-phased Assembly elections. While the first two phases have completed peacefully with about 56 per cent voter turnout, third, fourth and the fifth phases would take place on October 28, November 1 and 5.