27/01/2017

Why JD(U) ran away from UP when the race actually started?





Patna,(BiharTimes): The decision of Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar to back out of contest in Uttar Pradesh has not been received well by the party’s rank and file.

“If that was going to happen why did we wasted so much energy in the last one year in UP,” asked a party functionary, while talking to Bihar Times. This leader himself visited UP no less than half a dozen times during this period.

Though JD(U)’s national spokesman K C Tyagi blamed the Samajwadi Party and Congress for tying up without taking other parties into fonfidence the truth is that it is a lame excuse.

Political observers are of the view that honestly speaking JD(U) was nowhere in contest in UP. The image-conscious Bihar chief minister has tarnished his own image by first campaigning so much in UP and than subsequently withdrawing by offering no valid reason.

“His party suffered humiliating defeat in Delhi two years back though it has a sizeable voters of Bihar origin. In neighbouring Jharkhand, where once it used to have five MLAs, the party is no where in the secne. In UP in 2012 the JD(U) put up candidates in 219 seats only to lose in all. Like in Delhi it forfeited security deposit in most of the seats,” said an analyst.

A party insider said that most people within were suspicious of JD(U)’s alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal. Its chief Ajit Singh is known for the party hopping. The talk almost failed in April last year. Yet Nitish continued to join hands with him after even BJP found RLD of no use.

RLD is hoping to regain its ground in west UP after Jats got disillusioned with the BJP. But the big question is how many Jat votes would transfer towards his party.

The SP and Congress did not want to take RLD into its fold as they fear that they would lose Muslim votes. After Muzaffarnagar riots of August-September 2013 the Jat-Muslim alliance crumbled.

Nitish’s prime ministerial ambition––if he really nurses any––has received a setback after the decision to withdraw from contest in UP.

In contrast, Bihar watchers say, alliance partner RJD showed more political maturity. Its chief Lalu Prasad did not fish in the troubled waters of UP. Instead he tried to bring about truce between father and son there. Now he and his deputy CM son, Tejaswi Prasad, are going to campaign in that state.

May be the family compulsion has forced them to tread a cautious line.

Incidentally, Nitish backed out of the race just a couple of days after RJD vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that JD(U) is creating confusion in UP.

Usually JD(U) leaders would not take Raghuvansh seriously and would hit out at him. But now they are all silent.

And what about prohibition campaign in that state?

 

 

 

 

.

 

comments powered by Disqus










traffic analytics