With the regrouping of the erstwhile Janata Parivar to be a political reality soon — most probably after January 15 — Bihar’s senior leaders Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad have plunged into the poll mode. Lashing out at the BJP on Friday, they declared that the party’s winning spree would be stopped in the upcoming Assembly elections.
“Since we’ve come together, there is no challenge ahead for us. Had we fought the last Lok Sabha elections together, the BJP would have been finished in the State,” declared the RJD chief Lalu Prasad who visited Patna to celebrate New Year, four months after his heart surgery.
The RJD had got 29 per cent of votes, while the JD(U) received 19 per cent in the last general elections. The BJP had bagged 31 per cent. “They are ruling on just 31 per cent of votes but now we have joined hands to stop division of votes,” declared Mr. Prasad. He also attacked the BJP, saying it was courting controversies. “It seems the day is not far away when they will replace the tri-colour with saffron flag,” he said.
Senior JD-U leader Nitish Kumar declared that Narendra Modi’s victory rath [chariot] will be stopped in Bihar.
“2015 will see the end of BJP’s winning streak and the symptoms are already evident,” said Mr Kumar. “All the promises of bringing back black money, employment and welfare measures to farmers have been kept aside and the BJP now appears to be resorting to divisive politics to divert attention of the country from the real issues.”
On the other hand, the State BJP has geared up to take on the merged parties. It has started a membership drive in the State and is making inroads in the formidable Yadav vote bank.
