The ongoing family feud in the Samajwadi Party has raised apprehensions in the larger socialist network of parties, with Janata Dal (U)’s Bihar unit president Bashishtha Narayan Singh calling for temperance from both parties of the feud in the larger interest of oppositional politics.
Speaking to The Hindu , the veteran socialist leader and a confidant of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar refused to go into the specifics of the family feud but said that he hoped it would be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction soon.
“We hope that the troubles besetting the party are resolved soon. Hum yahi chahtey hain ki Samajwadi dhada saath rahey (all we want is for parties aligned to socialist ideologies to stay together),” he said.
Again, not specifically commenting on the SP supremo Mulayam Singh getting in touch with his party or the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), he said that, “the unity of socialist forces is important as there is a genuine aspiration among the people for an alternative to the BJP and their ideological stream.”
He pointed to Bihar’s own experience with the Mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance of Janata Dal(U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, which won the Assembly polls in 2015.
“If you note the language of (Jharkand Vikas Morcha chief) Babulal Marandi, former prime minister Deve Gowda and Om Prakash Chautala, they have all expressed this anxiety that we must unite to present an alternative,” he said.
Mr. Nitish Kumar had, in the past, mediated for the re-unification of the erstwhile party, with the SP chief Mulayam Singh at the head, and the SP’s party symbol, the bicycle, as its symbol. That experiment fizzled out because of Mr. Mulayam Singh’s refusal to go ahead with it. Mr. Kumar is all set to contest polls in Uttar Pradesh as well, along with the RLD.
“The current government at the Centre is in the control of market forces, is not welcoming of diversity which is a unique feature of our country and believes in overcoming its failures by invoking sentiments (referring to the post-Uri surgical strikes),” he said.
