Reacting on seat sharing among JD(U), RJD and Congress as declared by CM Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo lalu Prasad in presence of AICC general secretary CP Joshi on Wednesday here, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said on Thursday that Nitish conceded defeat in seat sharing and even if the alliance manages to form Government the real power would be in the hands of lalu.
“Just two mega rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish under pressure knelt down before lalu. He had to do humiliating tie up with RJD and Congress. The JD(U) has 118 MlAs but it has to agree to contest only on 100 seats leaving its claim on 18 seats while on the other hand gave 76 seats more to RJD which has only 24 MlAs. It proves that lalu has got away with more seats in return of the support he extended to Nitish Government,” said the former deputy CM.
In 2010 Assembly elections, when JD(U) was in alliance with the BJP, the party contested 141 seats and won 115. later on, it expanded its strength to 118. Modi said Nitish shunned the lohia’s anti-Congressism and awarded Congress 40 seats which could win only four seats by contesting all the 243 seats in 2010. “This is the prize Congress got since Sonia Gandhi played a role in coercing lalu to accept Nitish as leader,” he alleged.
Modi said by agreeing to give seats to RJD and Congress as per their demand Nitish has admitted that his support base has shrunk and now he fully depends on lalu for victory. “It also proved that lalu is not only a partner of the alliance but the real power. Nitish’s Government for 15 months is surviving on lalu’s mercy,” the BJP leader said in a statement and added that this period sounded the return of Jungle Raj. He recalled that on July 27 when lalu called for Bihar bandh, the RJD workers hit the streets with their oiled lathis, frightened the shopkeepers and common people and even stopped the car of a high court judge.
“Nitish may be ready to consume poison just to stay in power but the people are not ready for that. The BJP has sent Parivartan Raths in all directions and use its all force to stop the return of Jungle Raj,” said Modi.
Another senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav took a potshot on the seat sharing and said Nitish and lalu have now betrayed NCP and Samajwadi Party. “They had been saying that Mulayam Singh Yadav was their leader and head of proposed merged party but in seat sharing decision they preferred to forget him. Similarly, they ditched Sharad Pawar and left only three seats for his party,” said leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Yadav who is currently leading one of the BJP’s Parivartan Rath and alleged that the ‘opportunist’ alliance’s history was betrayal.