23/12/2013

 

Left, right, left: Is Nitish marching far too fast?


Patna,(BiharTimes): The Janata Dal (United)’s reported move to go for a pre-poll alliance with the Communist Party of India reminds one of the similar steps the party took in the past.

After snapping the relationship with the then Janata Dal in October 1994 Nitish Kumar and others formed the Samata Party. The new party joined hands with the CPI ML (Liberation) to contest the March 1995 Assembly election. It was for the first time that the CPI ML contested election as an open organization as it came overground only on December 18, 1992. Previously its open organization, the Indian Peoples Front used to fight elections.

The Samata Party was routed in the Assembly election. It won only seven Assembly seats in the House of 324 then. Incidentally, all these seats were of Nalanda district.

A year later the Samata Party took a big shift. From the ultra Left outfit, the Samata Party went over to join forces with the the ultra Right party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In fact it was none else but Nitish Kumar who took the initiative. He went to the BJP’s national executive in Moumbai held at the end of 1995.

The then Samata Party contested the 1996 Lok Sabha election in alliance with the BJP.

After having a long relationship of over 17 years the new version of Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United), snapped its ties with the right-wing BJP.

The Janata Dal (United)-led government went into minority and won the trust vote on June 19 last on the help it got from the four MLAs of Congress, four Independents and one CPI.

Initally it appeared that Nitish Kumar would tie up with the Congress. He made the demand of special category status as a condition to support any alliance or party at the Centre.

Then the Left and some other regional parties called a meeting in Delhi on October 30 with the idea to float a Third Front or Federal Front. The idea did not click.

Then another development took place. The RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav got bail and the Congress started tilting towards him as it realized that his graph is going up and Nitish’s going down.

Nitish found himself high and dry. The party leaders and workers started questioning the winnability of JD(U).

On the other hand Lalu started talking about the grand secular alliance of Congress, RJD, LJP and Left parties. While there is some hint that the CPI ML may go with this combination the CPI may have pre-poll alliance with the JD(U). The party is likely to stake its claim over Begusarai, Purnea, Bhagalpur and a couple of other seats. But the Janata Dal (United) may not give Begusarai as it has sitting MP, Monazir Hasan, from there.

Since JD(U) fought the last Lok Sabha poll in alliance with the BJP, which won Purnea (Uday Singh) and Bhagalpur (Shahnawaz Husain), there is little problem in leaving these two seats for the CPI.

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