Janata Dal (United) the erstwhile ally of the BJP, and the ruling party of Bihar has said there is no change in its position towards the BJP and they are against the saffron party. JD (U) said that no inferences should be drawn from the support extended to the withdrawal of high value currency notes as legal tender extended by the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
“There are no bickering within the ruling grand alliance of Bihar and it’s a canard that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is getting closer to the BJP after supporting the demonetization move of the Centre’’, said the JD (U) general secretary and spokesperson KC Tyagi, here in a press conference on Tuesday. “Nitish Kumar was demanding ban on the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currencies since he took oath of office as chief minister of Bihar in November 2015 to eliminate the black money and corruption. As his demands were accepted by Narendra Modi, thus he supported the move and nothing more should be read in his statement” said the JD (U) leader.
“We were against the BJP in the past and will continue to remain the same in future. Our electoral battle in UP is only against the BJP and will do our best to prevent it from coming to power’’. He however clarified that `` We are not against SP or BSP in UP.” Tyagi reiterated that they were interested in forging alliance with Samajwadi Party, but Mulayam Singh Yadav ditched them even after holding talks while Congress were yet to show their inclination towards this front comprising of JD(U) , RlD and BS-4. The Rajya Sabha member, who was present on Monday during the announcement of JD (U), RlD and BS4 forcing an alliance in UP to contest the coming assembly elections, said that five smaller political outfit- Pragitisheel Manav Samaj Dal, Rashtriya Samanta Dal, Rashtriya Kranti Party, Janwadi Party (socialist) and Jaihind Party have joined the alliance while Bharatiya Samajik Naya Morcha merged the party with JD (U). This smaller outfit under the banner of Ati Pichara Chetna Manch will organise a most backward rally in lucknow on December 17 which will be addressed by Bihar CM and JD (U) president Nitish Kumar. “ The alliance would concentrate on the issues relating to the most backwards in the state and will go for empowering this section of the society by holding series of rallies in UP during December-January. These rallies would be addressed by leaders of JD (U), RlD and other smaller parties,” he stated.
He said in Bihar, the Nitish Kumar government had a lot for the welfare of the most backwards by giving them 20 per cent reservation within the 27 percent quota for the OBCs. He said the Bihar government has also created a separate department for implementing the special welfare schemes like increasing the scholarships of the students by three times and construction hostels for MBC students in all the districts for the uplift of the MBCs. He said the budgetary grants for the MBCs in Bihar has also been hiked to Rs 1,900 crores in 2016-17 from a paltry Rs 42 crores given in 2008-09. Rashtriya Samanta Dal president Moti lal Kushawaha on the occasion alleged that the present Samajwadi Party government in UP has given 400 per cent reservation facilities to a particular caste in the OBCs category while the most backwards were denied their due share in state government jobs and other benefits available to them under the quota for the OBCs.