Sinha is keen that an alliance is struck between RJD and Chirag Paswan’s LJP, now in NDA.
New Delhi: Former senior BJP leader and Union minister Yashwant Sinha is playing the role of a senior mentor for Bihar based anti-BJP parties and guiding them to stitch a stronger alliance to take on the BJP-led NDA in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
As per Sinha’s reading, the Nitish Kumar-led NDA alliance is facing massive anti-incumbency which has become more prominent due to the “mishandling” of the Covid-19 crisis and the flood situation in the state. This, according to Sinha, has brightened the chance of the Grand Alliance that is composed of RJD, Congress and other regional parties.
Sinha, who till recently was camping in Patna and presiding over meets which were attended by different leaders from the RJD and LJP, is keen that an alliance is struck between the RJD and the LJP, whose leader, Chirag Paswan, is doing his best to get out of his father’s shadow by way of attacking Nitish Kumar, on one hand, and seeking more seats from the BJP, on the other.
On 27 June, Sinha, in Patna had announced the formation of a new political front comprising like-minded leaders who are now “independent”. He has also been pushing for postponement of the polls due to Covid-19, a demand that Chirag Paswan, too, has been making.
The Sunday Guardian reached out to Sinha for a comment from his side, but no response was received till the time the story went to print.
Multiple leaders across the BJP and RJD, who spoke to The Sunday Guardian, confirmed that talks between Paswan and Tejashwi, through mutual friends like Sinha, have been going on for the last few weeks. One of the offers on the table, these leaders claimed, was that of Chirag Paswan being offered the deputy CM chair if the Grand Alliance comes to power.
Paswan, according to these leaders, feels that the BJP has given undue importance to the Nitish Kumar-led JDU in the NDA due to which the LJP’s hold over the Dalit voters in the state has now considerably shrunk than what it was in the past and now his party’s sway was only limited to the Paswan voters.
According to sources, Paswan feels that if the LJP does not contest on a “respectable” number of seats this time, irrespective of the alliance it is a part of, it will have to pay a big political price for it in the near future.
Paswan, on many occasions in the recent past, has spoken out against Nitish Kumar who is technically the leader of the NDA in the state. These anti-Nitish Kumar statements, have however, been dubbed by the Bihar-based JDU and BJP leaders as an “election related rhetoric” that happens in every election to seek more number of seats. “The LJP has a history of making all kinds of noise before the elections. Is Chirag Paswan willing to sacrifice his father’s chair in the Union Cabinet for 10 extra seats that he might get from the RJD. He is not going anywhere. They might be communicating with the RJD, but at the end, they will stay in the NDA,” a Bihar-based BJP leader who is the district in-charge, said.
LJP national spokesperson Sanjay Saraf, while speaking to The Sunday Guardian, continued the party’s stance of attacking Nitish Kumar and said that the party’s “expectations” should be met (with regards to seat sharing) or else the party would be forced to decide the future course of action.
“For us, the NDA means BJP. There are other parties (referring to the JDU) which have joined the NDA after us, they are not original members of the NDA. Chirag Paswan has been raising valid issues which have been appreciated by the PM and Home minister, but the same issues have upset the CM. Why? This is wrong. Chirag Paswan is only raising the issues that are related to the well-being of Bihari residents, in and outside Bihar, who are facing problems due to Covid-19. He has become the face of the youths in Bihar and there is nothing wrong when he says that there is no employment opportunity in the state and that no hospitals have been built in the last five years. The situation right now is not conducive for elections—pandemic and floods have taken a toll. How can we go to the voters in these times and ask them to come out and vote?” he said in a view that is totally opposite to the BJP and JDU, who want elections to be held on the scheduled time.
According to Saraf, the party was not engaged in any alliance talks with the RJD. “There is no talk going on with RJD regarding an alliance, we are happy wherever we are. But our expectation should be met. This time, things won’t be like last time where they told us these are the 40 seats you will contest. This time, we will decide where we want to contest from or else, we will see, our parliamentary board will decide (the next step). We have seven MP s. JDU only has two MPs despite contesting on 25 Lok Sabha seats. Look at the strike rate and decide who has better following over the voters. We will not contest on just 35 seats,” he said. The LJP had contested on 75 seats in the 2010 polls and on 42 seats in the 2015 polls.
As per Patna-based BJP leaders, the likely composition of seat arrangements that the three parties (BJP, JDU, LJP) are going to finalise, is going to be 100-100-43 in the 243 Assembly seats. However, that arrangement might change if the BJP decides to include the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Avam Morcha (HAM) into the NDA. Manjhi on Friday announced that he was leaving the Grand Alliance.
In a scenario where HAM is included in the NDA, it is likely to get 7-10 seats which will leave LJP with 33-35 seats to contest on.
Manjji’s induction into the NDA is also being seen as a “replacement” or a “safety net” for LJP, if it decides to join the Grand Alliance at the last moment. The RJD’s poll momentum, meanwhile, has got a massive boost after party president, Lalu Yadav, who is incarcerated in Ranchi, is now able to directly communicate with Tejashwi on issues related to election management due to a favourable government in the state. Lalu Yadav has also been religiously interacting with senior party leaders and loyalists who had gone away from the RJD after Lalu Yadav was sent to prison for fodder scam, and bringing them into the party fold.