JDU leaders have claimed that the party will stand with the RJD and Congress.
New Delhi
As there have been rumours of the BJP targeting the Janata Dal (United) to break away a chunk of it and bring it into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold, leaders in the JDU have claimed that the party as a whole will stand with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress. And it will also continue pursuing its activities to form a broad-based Opposition front at the national level.
The buzz in political circles is that Rahul Gandhi has “promised” Nitish Kumar the prime ministerial position in case the Opposition is successful in defeating the incumbent Central government run by the BJP. This is why, it is believed, that Kumar has gone into “hyper active mode” to bring all the anti-BJP parties together. However, a political analyst said, “Rahul Gandhi can tell every major alliance partner that he could be the next prime minister if the Opposition comes into power. He can tell Akhilesh Yadav the same thing. However, after the elections, it will be a different situation and the party which gets the most number of seats in the Parliamentary elections will get to choose the PM.”
A section of party leaders claim that there are several MLAs in the JDU who want to switch over to the BJP as they know that if the Opposition alliance works out, it will reduce their prospects of getting tickets from their respective constituencies. Moreover, they are also aware of the reducing political space of the party due to Nitish Kumar’s frequent U-turns with his alliance partners. In the past, he has stitched alliances with both the RJD and BJP, but left both the parties in the midst of the five-year term of governance and joined hands with the Opposition parties of the time to secure his chief ministerial position.
However, party insiders claim that it will be difficult for them to leave the party and Kumar has strengthened his grip over the MLAs. In addition to that, party leaders also claim that it would be a challenging task for the BJP to rally behind the support of at least 30 MLAs to escape the scrutiny of the anti-defection law. A JDU leader said, “If there are defections from the JDU, it will be a negative as far as Opposition unity at the national level goes, as ours is the party that is trying to glue together many anti-BJP parties. If it breaks down, it will become a major setback for Opposition unity and offset the progress of Opposition activities. Such a political scene will be bad for optics. Moreover, Congress is relying on Kumar’s efforts to conduct an anti-BJP movement. Though the contours of the common narrative have not been set yet, without Kumar, it will be difficult to muster support across the country.”
A senior political analyst said, “He has switched sides so many times and after he has stitched alliances with so many parties, he broke alliances. Will he do it again? He won’t. He will stick with his promise of fighting against the BJP, because if he switches sides now, there will be nowhere for him to go. He will be named a rarest of chameleons who changes colours for his survival and has nothing to do with development politics of the state. Now, it is about his political survival and the legacy he builds in his last phase of politics. Therefore, it is most probable that he will stand behind the RJD.”