RJD may sacrifice Shahabuddin, likely to leave Siwan , Ara for CPI- ML
Patna,(BiharTimes): In a bid to sew up a broad-based alliance against the BJP the Rashtriya Janata Dal is likely to offer Siwan and Ara parliamentary seats for the CPI ML.
Reports quoting senior RJD sources said that the RJD has already made such an offer to the CPI ML, but the latter has not yet shown its keenness.
If this is done RJD is likely to sacrifice don-turned-former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, whose wife, Hena Shahab, unsuccessfully contested from Siwan in the last couple of elections.
Her defeat was attributed to the division of large number of secular votes, which go to CPI ML too.
However, the CPI ML is more interested in having a Left front rather than a broad-based anti-BJP alliance. Its state secretary, Kunal, has refused to confirm the offer made by the RJD.
CPI ML, which has three seats in the state Assembly, has always done better in Siwan and Ara. Rameshwar Prasad won from Ara LS seat in 1989. Prasad, a former Naxalite, than won under the banner of Indian Peoples Front as the CPI ML was then an underground organization.
“If this happens, then it is now clear that the RJD has realized that Mohammad Shahabuddin has become a liability for the party,” said an analyst.
Incidentally, CPI ML is consider much more anti BJP yet many of its cadres were gunned down by the goons of Shahabuddin. This includes the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, Chandrashekhar. The trial is still on.
