After weeks of uncertainty on the issue of either merger or secular alliance of political parties to take on BJP, JD (U) president Sharad Yadav on Thursday said Congress, JD(U), RJD, NCP and others will fight together in the Bihar Assembly polls.
Scotching speculation about RJD and JD (U) going separate ways, Sharad said that the unity (of Janata Parivar parties) has already been announced and it will materialise soon because the country needs it in the present political scenario. “I am confident about the unity but for now all these parties will contest through a single platform,” Sharad said.
The comments assume importance following RJD chief lalu Yadav’s aide Bhola Yadav calling on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a day earlier. Nitish has been holding interactions with many party leaders and sources said that the exercise will continue till June 17 and in between he will also visit Delhi.
After the much talked about Janata Pariwar merger comprising Samajwadi Party, JD (U), RJD, INlD and SJP failed, there has been a war of words between the leaders of JD (U) and RJD over the issue of projection of Nitish as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance.
RJD vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, whose assertions against declaring Nitish as CM candidate of the alliance, were retorted strongly by State Minister Shyam Rajak, had on Wednesday said the leadership and other issues could be sorted out only when prominent leaders of the two parties talk to them.
Nitish started weighing options of an alliance with Congress in the event of RJD-JD (U) did not materialise. JD (U) during the lok Sabha polls was also keen forging an alliance with Congress since the latter’s vice president Rahul Gandhi too was interested but both of them were reluctant. Party president Sonia Gandhi later preferred to remain with her old political loyalist lalu.
lalu on Wednesday in Patna said that reality was different from what was being propagated by the “vested interests” and that he was “committed to fighting communal forces”. His statement was seen as an indication that an alliance was likely. Sharad refused to divulge what transpired in his talks with the RJD chief recently.