Amid a fresh bid for the unification of the erstwhile Janata Party constituents by an embattled Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) is unlikely to reciprocate in the way it did last year before Bihar Assembly polls.
Amid reports that MSY dispatched his brother and president of UP unit of the Samajwadi Party to meet the leaders of different parties and invite them for the SP’s silver jubilee functions in lucknow on November 5, the JD(U) said it was yet to get any invitation. “Once we get an invitation we will think over it,” said JD(U) national secretary Shyam Rajak on Thursday. However, in Delhi the party’s general secretary KC Tyagi confirmed receiving the invitation.
While the RJD has welcomed MSY’s move, the JD(U) is watching the development cautiously. In the current political scenario in poll-bound UP, RJD chief lalu Prasad has time and again reiterated his support for the SP and even declared he would campaign for the party, while the JD(U) has taken a different stand and vowed to contest there in alliance with “like-minded” smaller parties. But in its action plan the party has not favoured association with the SP.
JD(U) national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is also not very impressed with MSY’s move for Maha Gathbandhan (grand alliance) months before the crucial election in UP and particularly at a time when Netaji’s family is gripped by fierce infighting. “If Mulayam had not backed out from the unification efforts, today he would have been a big leader to challenge Narendra Modi. He would have Governments in two States, Bihar and UP,” said Tyagi. “Had such a Maha Gathbandhan been finalised when I took the initiative the SP would not have faced this critical situation,” said Nitish and suspected some conspiracy which frustrated his efforts in July last year.
He said, “It is now clear that there had been a conspiracy that the six-party Maha Gathbandhan under Mulayam Singh Yadav did not take shape. If it was finalised the political mood of the country would have been different.”
What hurt Nitish the most was MSY’s decision not only to back out from the unification bid but also fielding SP candidates in Bihar polls against three parties alliance. The SP patriarch though failed, his move was seen as an attempt to benefit BJP and its allies.
Sources in the JD(U) close to Nitish said that the party leadership was worried over the infighting in the SP amid apprehension that BJP might take advantage of this situation, Nitish is unlikely to take any initiative for the Maha Gathbandhan.
The JD(U) leaders, who have started seeing Nitish as the probable challenger to Modi, would not give much space to Mulayam in the national politics.
However, former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav is sympathetic towards Mulayam and might press Nitish to give another chance to Netaji, who had been offered leadership of the proposed grand alliance and was authorised to make one party under one flag with one symbol.