A day after the State JD(U) president declared that his party would make an alliance with the RJD to contest the upcoming Assembly bypoll on ten seats, senior party leader and former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday stamped the decision saying “along with the RJD and the Congress, all parties opposed to the BJP should come together to defeat the party” in the bypoll.
Earlier on Sunday, at the party’s State executive meeting, Nitish had sung paeans to RJD chief lalu Prasad saying that he had helped the JD(U) Government “at a very difficult moment”. “If he (lalu) had not supported us in the Rajya Sabha bypoll, our Government would have fallen as many of our party legislators were singing different tunes at that time while, others were mum and watching the situation,” Nitish told his partymen at the meeting.
He also made it clear that to counter the BJP, all political parties opposed to BJP, including RJD and Congress have to make a broader alliance. “The challenge is greater now so we all have to get together to defeat BJP,” said Nitish. On Monday, he reiterated to mediapersons that the JD(U) State executive has taken a decision to fight the upcoming bypoll on ten seats in alliance with the RJD and the Congress.
“The party has authorised State president Basistha Narayan Singh to initiate talks with parties opposed to the politics practiced by BJP for a united forum to contest the bypoll,” he said. He, however, made it clear that he was yet to hold talks with lalu in this regard. Meanwhile, Basistha Narayan Singh said the decision to contest the bypoll along with the RJD and the Congress has now been finalised and he was leaving for Delhi on Monday to meet lalu in this regard.
Interestingly, earlier on Sunday, the State unit of the Congress had declared to contest on all the ten seats in the bypoll separately. “We’d like to contest on all ten seats on our own and we’ve intimated our party’s central leadership in the regard,” said State Congress chief Ashok Chaudhury. However, on Monday, Chaudhury chose to sing a different tune saying, “no party could marginalise the Congress and there should be an alliance of like-minded parties to defeat resurgent BJP”.
Party sources, meanwhile, told The Pioneer that out of ten seats in the bypoll, the seat sharing between the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress has almost been finalised with four each to the JD(U) and the RJD and two seats for the Congress. “Seat sharing is not a big issue if the alliance is being made … we’ll sort it out without any roadblocks,” said both Basistha Narayan Singh and RJD legislature Party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui.
Siddiqui also emphatically said that alliance between the like-minded parties like the JD(U) and the RJD has been finalised and those who were against this alliance might choose their own path. “The alliance is final and those party leaders who are opposed to it are free to choose their own path. When the party has decided, individual opinion doesn’t matter,” Siddiqui further said.
Earlier, six-time RJD legislator from Barhara Assembly constituency in Bhojpur, Raghvendra Pratap Singh said the decision to make an alliance with the JD(U) was taken unanimously by party leadership. “In fact both parties have been politically decimated by the people of Bihar, so it’s their political compulsion to join hands for their political existence,” fumed the RJD leader who, according to party sources, are not on good terms with lalu for quite sometime.
He said that he has just expressed his feelings and done nothing against the party. “Before taking the decision of forging an alliance, even six-time party MlAs like me who has been with the party since its formation were not consulted,” rued the RJD MlA. On the other hand, reacting over the “unholy alliance between the two old rivals JD(U) and RJD,” State BJP leaders said it was forged for their opportunistic political gain.
“People of the State are watching all the development with keen eyes and at all cost they would not accept the jungle raj-2 and defeat the alliance in the forthcoming Assembly bypoll and Assembly polls,” said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. Modi has also appealed to party leaders that the Assembly polls could take place anytime in the State as “there is huge resentment among the JD(U) MlAs which could fall the Manjhi Government anytime”.