PATNA: The New Year has begun on a suspenseful note for Bihar, its political parties and class and it might linger all through the first quarter of the 2022, as workers of ten of the 11 political parties having representatives in the Bihar legislature will be associated with the coming Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly elections one way or the other.
The major national and state parties active in Bihar with eyes set on UP are BJP, JD(U), Congress, RJD, CPI(ML), CPI, CPM, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), AIMIM and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). However, barring the RJD, the workers of the remaining political parties will root for and also hope to go to UP to campaign for their candidates.
From the NDA side, the BJP and JD(U) have already decided to be in alliance in UP also, even as the number of assembly seats to be allotted to the JD(U) has not yet been decided. However, they have left the HAM(S) and the VIP to test their fate in UP on their own steam.
The VIP has announced to contest 165 assembly seats there. Its leader Mukesh Sahani, who is a minister in the NDA government in Bihar led by Nitish Kumar, has been hopping between UP and Bihar. HAM(S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, on the other hand, is bracing to claim the political turf in UP on the Dalit card shorn of any sign of religious trappings and has also been trying to forge alliance outside the NDA there.
While the BJP, Congress and the Left parties have been processing the profiles of their functionaries who could be sent to UP to do the campaigning for the party candidates, the JD(U) is yet to decide whether Nitish will get actively involved in the campaigning work there as he himself has already embarked on social reforms campaign against liquor consumption, dowry and child marriage in Bihar, overlooking even the inauspicious ‘kharmas’ period that will end with the Makar Sankranti (January 14).
It started on December 22 from East Champaran and will end with the Nalanda rally on January 15, by which time Nitish would have addressed 12 meetings. Observers feel that he has been repositioning himself in Bihar amid the lurking uncertain situation as the BJP and JD(U) have differences over various issues in the state.
While this aspect is under the carpet as at present, the outcome of the UP assembly elections in February-March will impact Bihar, it is being felt.
Given the backdrop, while the RJD is unlikely to contest the assembly elections in UP, its leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who got married last month, will also embark on the statewide tour and rallies after January 15.
It has been called ‘Dhanyvad Yatra’ (thanksgiving tour) to thank people to make the RJD the largest political party in the state and also ‘Berojgari Yatra’ to focus on the NDA government’s failure to give jobs or create work opportunities for the youths of the state.
However, obliquely, the aim seems to be to be in a state of readiness if there is any political flux as a fallout of the UP assembly elections, observers feel.
