By Gargi Parsai
In the absence of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav from the 2019 Lok Sabha election pitch, senior socialist leader Sharad Yadav of the newly-formed Loktantrik Janata Dal will lead the maha-gathbandan campaign against the ruling National Democratic Alliance in Bihar.
The battle will be for 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In 2014, the BJP had won 22 of those seats, leaving all other parties, including the RJD and the Janata Dal (United), distant single digit winners.
Speaking to the UNI at New Delhi on Monday, Yadav said in this LS election the opposition alliance will perform well not just in Bihar, but also in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, preventing the BJP from coming to power.
”BJP will lose a chunk of its Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as well. In the South also, except in Karnataka, the saffron party is nowhere,’’ he said.
Yadav believes that alliances will push the BJP to second place and ”the opposition grand alliance will form government at the Centre’’.
In 2014, besides BJP’s 22, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party had won six seats, followed by RJD (four), JD (U) and Congress (two each), Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (three) and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (one).
Yadav, who parted ways with incumbent JD(U) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2017 and had to give up his Rajya Sabha membership, will contest from Madhepura in Bihar on RJD symbol. Post-election, the LJD backed by Yadav, will be merged with Lalu’s party.
Some of his surprised supporters are disappointed that a leader of Yadav’s stature, who was at the centre of the erstwhile socialist movement in the country, is having to contest on RJD symbol.
One of the reasons for Yadav to come out of JD(U), of which he was the erstwhile president, was that in the middle of his government’s tenure, chief minister Nitish Kumar broke rank with RJD and joined hands with opposition BJP and continued governance in the state.
Yadav maintained that by coming out of the pre-poll alliance with RJD and joining hands with the BJP, Nitish “let down’’ voters.
In politics, where there are no permanent enemies or foes, Yadav’s this high moral ground has few takers and he is battling it out in courts on the plea that he is the real custodian of the JD (U).
Yadav had won Lok Sabha election from Madhepura in 1991, 1999 and 2009. In the 2014, he was defeated by RJD’s Pappu Yadav alias Rajiv Ranjan while the BJP secured third place. Pappu is threatening to contest as an independent candidate to challenge Yadav but nothing has been formalised so far.
In the past Yadav and Lalu have been embroiled in electoral rivalry with each having defeated the other more than once. In 2014 Yadav returned to Parliament (Rajya Sabha) as JD (U) nominee.
It is well known that Lalu dictated the maha-gathbandhan ticket distribution in Bihar from the Hotwar jail where he is lodged in the fodder scam.
In the new dispensation, the RJD will field its candidates on 20 seats, Congress on nine (against its demand of 11), RLSP got five seats, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) and Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) will contest on three seats each.
The RJD has offered one seat to CPI-ML from its quota.
In the hard bargaining that ensued, RJD has assured one Rajya Sabha nomination to the Congress Party. The Congress quota was yielded to as the party might accommodate heavy-weight migrants from BJP in the State.
At the same time the ruling NDA also announced its pre-poll pact wherein the JD (U) and the BJP will put up candidates on 17 seats each while LJP will contest on six seats.
Having being assured of Rajya Sabha nomination for himself by NDA, LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan has fielded his elder brother Pashupati Kumar Paras on his traditional seat of Hajipur.
With RSLP, HAM, VIP on its side in the caste-ridden politics of Bihar, the opposition maha-gathbandhan is upbeat about social combinations working in its favour.
Clearly, if Nitish Kumar is unable to hold on to his traditional backward and most-backward votes, then the BJP combine is likely to be in trouble despite the upper caste favouring it.
Bihar will go to the polls in all the seven phases. Voting will take place on April 11,18, 23, 29 and on May 6, 12 and 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. (UNI)
