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Patna,(BiharTimes): The Janata Dal (United)’s decision to contest election separately in Uttar Pradesh is a cause of concern for the BJP, which is trying its level best to stage a small comeback in the state.
The presence of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in its campaign is seriously going to mar the BJP’s prospect in several Kurmi dominated Assembly constituencies in eastern Uttar Pradesh. As both the Janata Dal (United) and BJP are vying for the same social base they are going to cut into each other’s votebank. |
The Janata Dal (United) has nothing to lose in the Assembly election as it is going to start from naught. The media is coming up with fantastic stories of Bihar Model at work in Uttar Pradesh when there is absolutely no scope for it.
Though the Janata Dal (United) wants to expand its base to make claim for the national party stature yet observers feel that it has not learnt a lesson from its virtual rout in Jharkhand in the last Assembly election, where it had some social base and had five MLAs earlier. In such a situation thinking that Nitish would make any impact in Uttar Pradesh is simply absurd.
When the Assembly election took place in West Bengal last year some mediapersons wrote that Mamata Banerjee may leave a few seats for Janata Dal (United) though there was absolutely no scope for it. Mamata fought tooth and nail for every seat with Congress in talks over seat adjustment. Thus in such a scenario there was no room to allot ticket to Janata Dal (United). Yet the media, especially in Bihar, was full with stories that Nitish Kumar would be a factor in West Bengal. Similar story is being repeated by the media in UP now.
The media is quick to cite the example of BSP winning some seats in Bihar in constituencies adjoining UP in 2005 and earlier Assembly polls. But the truth is that Janata Dal (United) is not going to make any impact all alone as there are too many players in UP. The contest in Bihar, has in the recent past been, straight, but in UP four major players are in the fray. Besides, while BSP contested alone, the Janata Dal (United) and BJP, though partners in NDA, are at daggers drawn position in UP and eating into each other’s almost identical base.
But then why is Janata Dal (United) insisting on contesting the election separately? Firstly, Nitish wants to project himself as a national level leader, when there is hardly any scope if he confines himself to Bihar. Secondly and most importantly he wants to leave no stone unturned to show to the world that outside Bihar the Janata Dal (United) is not with the BJP ideologically and that he joined hands with it only to dislodge the Lalu-Rabri regime.
In this way he wants to consolidate his ‘secular’ base within Bihar. He wants to show to the world that the BJP in Bihar is in alliance under his term and elsewhere he wants to maintain distance. Besides, he wants to project that he is not in alliance with the BJP in UP as it has sought the help of the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP rank and file are disturbed over this arm-twisting by Nitish Kumar. The party leaders know that they are not going to come to power. They just wanted to see the party end up third, but they fear that it may lose this position. For them the result may go like 2009 Lok Sabha election and not 2007 Assembly polls.
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