The ruling alliance partners in Bihar — the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP — are caught in a strange situation over the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.
The JD(U) has announced that it will contest the election in Delhi on its own. Further, the party’s national vice-president Prashant Kishor’s consultancy firm is managing the Aam Aadmi Party’s campaign strategy against the BJP.
Lok Janshakti Party, the third partner in the ruling alliance in Bihar, is also likely to throw contest in the Delhi polls. The JD(U) and the LJP are yet to announce how many seats they would contest.
“It is strange that JD(U) is contesting the Delhi Assembly poll against the BJP and the Aam Admi Party, but its own national vice-president Prashant Kishor is working hard for the AAP to win the poll. I think both the JD(U) and Mr. Kishor are playing a fixed match to defeat the BJP,” senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari told The Hindu.
Mr. Tiwari said that it was quite obvious that the JD(U) would cut into the vote share of the BJP in Delhi. However, JD(U) leader and Bihar Minister Neeraj Kumar said, “We don’t care who says and does what, but for us the party has always been bigger and more important than an individual”.
BJP leader and party MLC Sanjay Paswan said, “Mr. Kishor has no knowledge about politics. He is only a poll manager of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.”
Mr. Paswan, of late, has been saying that the people of Bihar want a BJP Chief Minister. His remark had prompted JD(U) to tell the BJP to “rein in the party’s motor-mouth leaders”.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) too is said to be mulling over contesting the Delhi Assembly elections. “We’ve identified10-15 seats in Delhi to contest but it will be decided and announced by our party chief soon,” said a party leader, seeking anonymity.
