“The entry of JDU in the NDA fold has made us very strong and if the numbers of the 2014 polls are to go by, we (NDA) will emerge very strongly in at least 38 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats with the JDU by our side. We are very confident of decimating the myth that it is the RJD that has the exclusive electoral right over the Muslim-Yadav votes in the state. Our analysis shows that we will do exceedingly well in at least 220 of the Assembly seats in the state,” said a BJP leader who is on assignment in New Delhi, but belongs to Bihar.
As per the data of the 2014 general elections, analysed by the JDU functionaries, the NDA and the JDU candidates got more than 40% of the total votes polled in at least 230 of the 243 Assembly seats in the state.
“In 194 of the total Assembly seats, the candidates fielded by the JDU and the NDA (separately) polled over 50% of the votes. In 83 seats, they got more than 60% votes. The JDU, if it had contested as part of the NDA during 2014, would have easily decimated the RJD and the Congress. The Assembly seats where the RJD will do well by itself, as per past performance, are not more than 15. The RJD has built a myth that it was because of it that the JDU won the state elections in 2015. The voters in Bihar rejected Lalu Yadav long back and it was only because he got associated with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, that he was able to come back to power. The next Assembly elections will prove this and debunk the myth that Muslims-Yadav will not vote for Nitish Kumar following his return to the NDA, a senior JDU functionary said.
According to him, the RJD’s base is in, if the recent few elections are to go by, only the two parliamentary seats of Katihar and Kishanganj.
JDU general secretary and the party’s point man in the national capital, K.C. Tyagi, told The Sunday Guardian that the JDU did not owe its success to caste politics. “We do not play caste politics nor support corruption and hence we left the Grand Alliance when we were asked to compromise with our values of clean politics. The Muslim-Yadav electorate voted for Nitish Kumar because of good governance and not because of any other reason. We have over 20 Muslim-Yadav MLAs and we will perform exceedingly well in the next elections,” he said.
Tyagi said that the departure of Sharad Yadav from the party will not make any impact. “All the Lok Sabha MPs, seven out of the 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, entire party MLAs, party functionaries are with us. Sharad Yadavji is standing alone. If he partcipates in Lalu Yadav’s 27 August rally, he will lose everything,” Tyagi said.