With the Bihar Assembly poll round the corner amid leaders switching their political loyalties while exploring safe seats to win, Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Birendra Kumar on Tuesday joined the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) declared it would contest for 50 seats in the State. Assembly elections in Bihar are due in October-November later this year.
The RJD MLA from Teghra in Begusarai district Birendra Kumar joined JD(U) in the presence of senior party leader and MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh. Mr. Kumar is the seventh RJD MLA to join the JD(U) in the past fortnight. Mr. Kumar said that developmental work initiated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inspired him to join the party. “There is no difference in what the Chief Minister says and does,” he told journalists. Welcoming him into the party, Mr. Lalan Singh said Mr. Kumar’s entry into the party would strengthen the JD(U).
Also read:Bihar Assembly elections | BJP, JD(U), LJP to fight polls together, says Nadda
Earlier, on August 20, three RJD MLAs — Chandrika Rai, Jai Vardhan Yadav and Faraz Fatmi — had joined the JD(U).
On August 17, three other RJD legislators — Maheshwar Prasad Yadav, Prema Choudhury and Ashok Kumar Kushwaha — came into the JD(U)’s flock. However, a day previously, the RJD had expelled these three legislators from the party for six years for anti-party activities.
Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led mahagathbandhan alliance partner Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) too has announced its exit from the alliance. HAM(S) is likely to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the poll. Similarly, some JD(U) leaders too have flocked to the RJD, and party leaders said “many more are waiting to join the RJD in the coming days”.
Also read: In poll-bound Bihar, parties vie for more seats, explore new formations
Meanwhile, the Bihar unit of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) announced it was contesting 18 more seats, taking the total to 50 seats it will contest in the upcoming poll. In the 2015 Assembly poll, the AIMIM had put up candidates for six seats in the Seemanchal (border) area of northeast Bihar but failed to win even one seat. However, in October 2019, the AIMIM opened its account when party candidate Qamrul Hoda defeated BJP’s candidate Sweety Singh in a by-poll from the Kishanganj seat.
Earlier, on June 10, the party had announced it would contest 32 seats while on Tuesday, State party president Akhtarul Iman announced the fielding of candidates for 18 more seats. Most of these seats are from the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal areas of Kishanganj, Purnia, Araria and Katihar. Mr. Imam announced that his party was ready to join hands with any other party or coalition against the NDA, and also dismissed charges that the AIMIM was putting up candidates in the Bihar Assembly poll to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Amid all the political developments, senior State BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi in an interview to a news agency said that “no political party is in a situation to form a government on its own in Bihar”. “The BJP, JD(U) and RJD are the three major political forces of Bihar politics and alliance is the State’s reality…there shouldn’t be any misconception about it,” Mr. Modi reportedly said, while asserting that the “NDA under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the State would contest the upcoming Assembly poll unitedly and form the government again.”
