It’s official now that in the aftermath of their poll rout, two political rivals of Bihar — the JD(U) and the RJD — would be joining hands on Friday, when the newly elected Jitan Ram Manjhi Government is scheduled to seek trust vote in the Assembly.
The RJD support, though, is said to be ‘unconditional’, but the buzz is that the leaders of both the parties are shaking hands under an ‘understanding’ with their eyes fixed on three Rajya Sabha seats.Three RS seats of Ram Vilas Paswan, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Ram Kripal Yadav are getting vacated as all three have been elected to the lok Sabha.Meanwhile, the JD(U) on Thursday welcomed the support extended by the RJD to the new State Government, but ruled out any chance of an alliance with it.A day before the Manjhi Government would go for floor test, RJD chief lalu Prasad on Thursday declared that his party would be supporting the Manjhi Government without any condition.
“Our party will support the JD(U) Government from outside and without any condition to stall the dreams of the BJP to form a Government in Bihar,” said lalu. He also said the allia-nce was necessary to strengthen secular forces not only in Bihar but in the country as well.When asked would both the parties contest the next Assembly polls in alliance, lalu did not deny the possibilities saying, “that will be decided later”.
In the 243-member Assembly, the effective strength of the House is 237 after the resignation of two BJP and three RJD MlAs recently. The ruling JD(U) has 117 members, while the BJP has 88 MlAs and the RJD has 21 members. The Congress has four and the CPI has one member while the rest are others. With the support of the RJD, Congress, CPI and two Independent MlAs, the Manjhi Government is all set to sail through the floor test with support of total 145 members.
The Manjhi Government has decided to call a special session of Bihar Assembly on Friday to prove its majority on the floor of the House.Earlier, both the RJD and JD(U) had been attacking each other on every front. Former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been alleging lalu’s RJD regime in Bihar as ‘jungle raj’.But, when both the parties faced serious drubbing in the just concluded lok Sabha polls, managing six out of total 40 parliamentary seats between them, they apparently has decided to come on a same platform to fight against the surging BJP.
However, the State BJP leaders are not surprised over the alliance between the two parties. “We’re not surprised at all with this as JD(U) president Sharad Yadav had declared it earlier as in the offing,” said senior State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.Sushil, however, asked Nitish where his “morality and political principle” has gone now as the mandate, he along with the BJP had got against the ‘jungle raj’ of lalu-led RJD in Bihar.
“They have, in fact, made an understanding during the lok Sabha polls itself … Nitish is doing all this to save his power and nothing else,” said Sushil.