Groundwork is being done by the leaders of RJD and JD(U) before Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo lalu Yadav, both of whom are in the national Capital, meet to forge an alliance together with the Congress and the NCP for the Bihar Assembly polls later this year. Nitish and lalu would also meet Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was appointed the head of splinter groups of six Janata Parivar and thereafter, call on the Congress leadership to announce a grand ‘secular-alliance’ of RJD-JD(U), Congress-NCP, and left parties for Bihar polls to counter the BJP.
In recent days, there have been enough indications emanating separately from Congress, JD(U) and RJD for a pre-poll alliance for Bihar elections. Hectic parleys amongst the leaders of these parties have since gained momentum with the focus now shifting to the national Capital for a formal announcement during the next couple of days.
The RJD and JD(U) have even been engaged in a war of words over their merger plans with seeking a bigger pie in the new scheme of things. Nitish and lalu are in Delhi and sources said that Mulayam and Congress president Sonia Gandhi could play the ultimate role of an ‘interlocutor’ to thrash out the differences between the friends-turned-foe-turned-friends of Bihar.
RJD Vice-President Raghubansh Prasad Singh, who had openly expressed his reservations against declaring Nitish’ name as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance outraging the JD (U), had appealed to Sonia to hammer out a solution and give shape to the anti-BJP alliance in Bihar. JD (U) chief Sharad Yadav, who was in Patna to deliberate more on the issue, too, is back to Delhi. leaders of JD (U) and RJD will meet on Sunday to discuss the poll partnership before the lalu-Nitish happens. Under one of the seat-sharing formula that is being discussed, both RJD and JD (U) could contest 100 seats each while 43 could be left for Congress, CPI-M, CPI and the NCP. Bihar Assembly has 243 seats. Sharad Yadav has insisted that both the parties besides NCP will fight the Assembly polls in the State together in alliance with Congress to challenge a resurgent BJP.