Cracks appeared in the National Democratic Alliance in the State on Sunday as one of the allies, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, declared its leader as the chief ministerial candidate of the party while another partner, the Lok Janshakti Party, warned the BJP against fielding five leaders from the Jitan Ram Manjhi camp in the upcoming Assembly polls.
On the concluding day of the RLSP’s two-day executive committee meeting at Vaishali, the party passed a resolution demanding that its chief Upendra Kushwaha be made the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate in the Assembly polls which are due in October. Mr. Kushwaha is the Minister of State for Human Resource Development in the Narendra Modi Cabinet.
The RLSP also decided that it will contest on 67 seats and hold public meetings in 125 constituencies. It even worked out a seat-sharing formula for the other NDA allies, leaving 74 seats for the Lok Janshakti Party and 102 seats for the BJP. The party, however, ignored former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s
Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) which recently extended support to the NDA.
“The party has taken the decision that Mr. Kushwaha will be our chief ministerial candidate and the party would contest on 67 seats,” said RLSP spokesperson Shivraj Singh.
He also claimed that Mr. Kushwaha, an influential backward caste leader, could effectively counter the big names -- JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar and RJD’s Lalu Prasad -- in the elections.
The BJP, which is leading the NDA in Bihar, termed the RLSP’s move a “pressure tactic” to bargain more number of seats in the Assembly polls.
“Let them say whatever they want to but the Chief Minister will only be from the BJP,” said Senior State BJP leader and MP from Buxar, Ashwini Choubey.
The NDA suffered a second jolt on Sunday when LJP chief and Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan told the BJP leadership that his party would oppose five leaders of HAM(Secular) who had “backstabbed the LJP after the 2005 Assembly election results”.
The five HAM(Secular) leaders are Narendra Singh and his two sons Ajay Pratap and Sumit Kumar Singh, Raju Singh, Ajit Kumar and Anil Kumar.
“These leaders had won the 2005 Assembly polls on LJP tickets, but later backstabbed the party and joined the JD(U) to be in power. We will oppose their candidature by all means. We have conveyed our decision to senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi,” said Bihar LJP president Pashupati Kumar Paras. He warned that if the five leaders are given tickets as NDA candidates, the LJP will field its candidates against them in those constituencies.
