After their contradictory statements on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pakistan visit and the Pathankot terrorist attack, Bihar’s coalition partners — the Janata Dal(United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal — have chalked out different roles for their parties in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year.
Both parties have prepared separate plans for visits by the leaders to Varanasi to project and present them as an alternative to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level.
The JD(U) has sent two of its party Rajya Sabha MPs, K. C. Tyagi and R.C.P. Sinha, both considered close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, to Varanasi to meet local Patel leaders ahead of Mr Kumar’s participation at a public meeting in March, organised by the Akhil Bhartiya Patel Navnirman Sena (ABPNS) which is headed by Hardik Patel. The Patel’s are a politically significant community in eastern U.P.
The ABPNS had declared that it would support the JD(U) in U.P. after the latter’s support for the release of Hardik Patel and reservation for Patidars in Gujarat.
“Nitish Kumar will attend the ABPNS mahapanchayat (grand public meeting) on March 6 in Varanasi and from there the JD(U) will launch its campaign against the BJP for the upcoming U.P. assembly poll,” a senior JD(U) leader told The Hindu . Asked if Mr. Kumar would be projected as an alternative to Mr Modi at the national level, he said, “Yes, of course. We’d like to replicate the Bihar poll result in U.P. as well and from there we’ll go across the country...who else than Nitish Kumar to do this job?”
On the issue of a JD(U)- Samajwadi Party alliance against the BJP , the State party president Basistha Narayan Singh said, “Mulayam Singh Yadav himself has closed chapter for an alliance.”
The JD(U)’s coalition partner RJD has also announced plans for an extensive tour of U.P. by party chief Lalu Prasad. “A complete calendar of the tour is being prepared and he will go there to oppose the BJP. After Varanasi he will also go to West Bengal, Assam and other parts of the country to oppose the communal forces,” Tejaswi Yadav, Deputy CM and younger son of Mr. Prasad, said on Monday.
The RJD State President Ram Chandra Purve told The Hindu that “In days to come, the Lalu model of secularism, democracy and communal harmony will be witnessed in Varanasi and across the country.”
According to party sources, Mr. Prasad will visit Varanasi in the last week of February and go to Jayapur village which was adopted by Mr. Modi under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana .
On an alliance with his relative and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, an RJD leader said, “It is upto the party supremo to decide…nothing is final yet… But, Laluji will visit even the Ganga ghat where PM Modi performed aarti and Jayapur to ask the youths there whether they got employment [as promised by Mr Modi], ” he confirmed.
