Grand alliance, BJP switch to election mode as Nitish, Shah face off in Bihar
Bihars ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) as well as its rival, the BJP, swung into election mode Saturday, almost a year ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, as their leaders Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Home Minister Amit Shah faced off in rival rallies in the politically important Hindi heartland state.
JD(U) strongman Kumar on Saturday asserted that the BJP will be restricted to under 100 seats if all the opposition parties, including the Congress, fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls unitedly.
While Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJPs principal strategist, told a rally and a conclave of farmers and labourers that the doors were shut “for ever” for Kumar, and Prime Minister Narendra Modis return to power will be followed by the party winning assembly elections on its own.
This seemed to be an answer of sorts to Kumars statement made earlier last month that he would die rather than join hands with the saffron party. Kumar and his adversary turned ally Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, asserted at a rally Saturday in Purnea that “ideology” brought them together and Mahagathbandhan will set the tone for the defeat of the seemingly invincible BJP in 2024 elections.
The chief minister claimed his only goal was to work for unifying the opposition to unseat the BJP from power. “The people of Bihar have taught them a lesson. There is an urgent need for opposition unity ahead of the 2024 elections to wipe out the BJP from the country.
“Seven parties have formed an alliance in Bihar. Similarly, all opposition parties in the country should come together to oust the Narendra Modi-led government,” he said.
Shah, however, mocked the tie up between RJD and JD(U) of Kumar, comparing it to “a mix of oil and water” wherein a blend was impossible notwithstanding “Prime Ministerial ambitions” of the Bihar CM that drove him “into the laps of Lalu and Sonia Gandhi”.
He also alleged that Kumar has entered a clandestine agreement with Lalu Prasad that the latters son Tejashwi Yadav, currently the Deputy CM, will be made the Chief Minister in return for the support received from the RJD for the JD(U) supremos alleged Prime Ministerial ambitions.
A highlight of Mahagathbandhan rally in Purnea was the speech of Lalu Prasad, who spoke through video conferencing from Delhi where he is recuperating after a kidney transplant operation in Singapore.
A master at neutralizing “Hindutva” through “social justice” plank, the former Chief Minister of Bihar, who had famously got L K Advani arrested, putting brakes on the “Ram Rath Yatra”, alleged that Modi was a “mukhauta” (mask) for the RSS which supported caste hierarchy.
“These BJP men keep crying hoarse Hindu! Hindu! We, too, are Hindus. But what is the fault of the minorities whom these people want to segregate”, said the RJD supremo, whose partys slogan for 2014 Lok Sabha polls “nafrat ki aandhi mein mohabbat ki laltain” (the lamp of love which shines in the storm of hatred) was praised despite its poor performance in the elections.
Kumar, whose abrupt exit from the NDA last year may have been the biggest setback for the BJP in recent past, trained his guns at “two leaders, one called the Prime Minister, the other known as the Home Minister, neither of whom understands politics, (or) even their own party”.
The septuagenarian, however, had some wistful recollections of the good time he had during the long alliance with BJP, formed first in the 1990s, marked by stints in the Union Council of Ministers headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and mutual trust enjoyed with Arun Jaitley.
Shahs events were a strictly BJP affair with almost all prominent leaders of the party in the state, including Union ministers, in attendance.
The Mahagathbandhan rally on the other hand was addressed, among others, by Tejashwi Yadav, CPI(ML) secretary general Dipankar, state Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi who heads Hindustani Awam Morcha, a constituent of the multi-party formation.
CPIML(L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, whose party has a dozen seats in the states assembly and has a strong cadre base there, alleged the BJP was destroying the democratic institutions of the country.
“The BJPs misrule has plunged the country into a deep crisis. The time has come to fight the fascist forces that are trying to disrupt social harmony and integrity of the country by instigating communal passion,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
