The Rashtriya Janata Dal and the ruling Janata Dal (United) officially announced on Wednesday that they would contest 100 seats each in the coming Bihar Assembly elections, leaving 40 to the third alliance partner, Congress.
They would hold the remaining three seats for the Nationalist Congress Party to contest if it was willing to join the alliance.
“We are united and there are no differences among us. We will defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance,” RJD chief Lalu Prasad told presspersons.
His party had agreed to join the alliance only to keep communal and fascist forces at bay.
JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Bihar in-charge of the Congress C.P. Joshi were present.
The NCP, Mr. Kumar said, was with them in the recent election to the Legislative Council. They would like the party to join them in the Assembly elections as well.
Nitish alliance plans joint campaigns
With the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the ruling Janata Dal (United) announcing they would contest 100 seats each in the coming Bihar Assembly elections, and leave 40 to the third alliance partner, Congress, the question posed by journalists was: What about the Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh? “He is my sambandhi [relative] and I’ll accommodate him if required,” said RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
Mr. Mulayam Singh had reportedly brokered peace between the Janata Dal (U) leader Nitish Kumar and Mr. Lalu Prasad, leading to the announcement that Mr. Nitish Kumar would be the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance.
Mr. Kumar told the press conference the alliance would have a common minimum programme and all constituents would hold joint campaigns.
Bihar in-charge of the Congress, Dr. C.P. Joshi, said his party had joined the secular alliance as it believed that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the biggest threat to the country today.” The alliance leaders said they would organise a Swabhiman (self-respect) rally at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna on August 30 to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s DNA jibe against the people of Bihar. Mr. Modi too is scheduled to address his fourth Parivartan Rally [rally for change] in Bhagalpur the same day.
