After electing Gujarat MLA Chotubhai Vasava as its president, the Janata Dal(U) faction led by Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav has declared that it will fight the Gujarat Assembly polls in alliance with the Congress.
Mr. Vasava gained nationwide fame after casting the decisive vote in favour of Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, a poll that saw many twists and turns.
Common front
“Over 20 State units have endorsed my candidature and I am grateful to be made president of the party. We will fight the coming Assembly polls in Gujarat as part of a common front with the Congress and the Left,” Mr. Vasava said on Monday. He was also in favour of speaking to Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakore, convener of the OBC, SC and ST Ekta Manch, to join this coalition.
Mr. Vasava castigated the BJP for the “repeated inauguration” of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. “This is the sixth such function and has been timed to occur just before Assembly polls in the State,” he claimed. He said the water from the dam would not benefit the local tribal population, but only corporates.
JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar — facing the prospect of being divested of his membership of the House along with Mr. Sharad Yadav for parting ways with Nitish Kumar — said that both of them had asked the Rajya Sabha secretariat time to respond to a notice.
Senior leader Arun Kumar Srivastava, who belongs to the Sharad Yadav camp, said the party National Executive declared all decisions taken by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as “invalid.”
