Nitish’s vain bid to increase JD(U)’s bargaining position in UP
Patna,(BiharTimes): Though some Janata Dal (United) leaders are a bit upset over the withdrawal of the party from the UP election sources close to the party chief Nitish Kumar has a different thing to say.
True he campaigned for more than a year in that state, especially afer the imposition of prohibition in Bihar on April 5 last year, yet he was always realistic.
The sources further said that Nitish in fact wanted to increase his party’s bargaining position.
As there is substantial Koeri-Kurmi vote in UP the party was concentrating more in the eastern part of the state, especially after the split in Apna Dal, which contested in alliance with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and won two seats.
But Apna Dal got split between wife and daughter of its leader Sonelal Patel after his death. The daughter Anupriya Patel was inducted into the Narendra Modi cabinet, while her mother Krishna, the president of the party, parted ways from NDA.
In the west UP, where there is substantial Jat votes, the JD(U) wanted to have a truck with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Nitish, according to party sources, was expecting that the secular alliance led by Akhilesh Singh would take notice of the importance of Nitish in east UP.
However, some other analysts are of the view that the Bihar chief minister went a bit overboard in befriending RLD. The latter is not a big player and the prevailing mood of the Jat voters compelled the Congress-SP combine to overlook RLD.
Some other Bihar watchers are of the view that had Janata Dal (United) not come closer to the RLD the situation might have been different.
But the problem is that Nitish wanted to broad-base his influence in UP. Thus, he joined forces with the RLD. Besides, there was turmoil in the SP and JD(U) could not extend hands of friendship towards it.
“Apart from this, Nitish had not forgotten the role SP had played on the eve of Bihar Assembly election. Yet he is not taking revenge. By withdrawing from the race the JD(U) is indirectly helping the secular SP-Congress alliance,” a Delhi-based party functionary told BiharTimes. .
