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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Bihar polls: Differences emerge in Janata Parivar
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Bihar polls: Differences emerge in Janata Parivar

RJD has accepted the leadership of JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, but there's little agreement on anything else

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh (2nd from left) with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad (right), JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar during a news conference to announce their merger in New Delhi. Photo: PTIPremium
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh (2nd from left) with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad (right), JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar during a news conference to announce their merger in New Delhi. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: The new anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition, the Janata Parivar, created by the coming together of six parties, is off to a rocky start with two of its constituents not seeing eye-to-eye on the selection of candidates for the assembly elections in Bihar, scheduled for later this year.

The Parivar (Hindi for family) is made up of the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Indian National Lok Dal, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi Janata Party.

Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), foes turned friends, are discovering the uneasy side of partnerships even after deciding to merge with each other and fight the election under a common symbol.

The RJD has accepted the leadership of Bihar chief minister Kumar, but there is little agreement on anything else. JD(U) members want to contest all the 115 seats the party had won in the last assembly elections. The RJD wants to contest an equal number of seats, leaving very little for the Congress, which is backing the new entity. The assembly has a total of 243 seats.

“We will contest on all the seats that JD(U) won in 2010 assembly poll," said a senior JD(U) leader involved in talks with the RJD. He requested anonymity.

A senior RJD leader played down the differences even as he admitted their existence.

“Every such alliance, and this is a merger, has seat-sharing issues, and ours is no different, specially in this case where both the RJD and the JD(U) are equally important parties in the state," said this person, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Both parties knew what they were getting into, this person added.

He sees the eventual math as thus: “100 for the RJD, 100 for the JD (U), and the rest between the Congress, the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist), and the others."

At least one party won’t have a problem with that.

The Congress, whose support base in Bihar has been eroded in recent years, is considering running for fewer seats. The Congress contested all 243 seats in the 2010 assembly elections, but won just four.

“Even if the JD(U) and the RJD divide 200-210 seats between them, there are still enough seats left for us to contest," said a senior Congress leader, who didn’t want to be named.

Another consequence of the merger between the JD(U) and the RJD is the threat of desertion by top leaders of both parties if they do not get a chance to contest the polls.

“We are worried about people who will not be able to get election tickets. It is possible that these leaders will either join the BJP or the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan. It is also possible that these angry leaders may work against the party in their constituency to make it difficult for the Janata Parivar candidate to win," said a senior JD(U) leader who asked not to be identified.

The JD(U) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance parted ways with each other in 2013, and in last year’s general elections, the latter won 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar, prompting the JD(U) and the RJD to come together.

The alliance won six of the 10 assembly seats in the state during a 2014 by-election. In the 2010 assembly elections, the BJP won 91 seats and its then ally JD(U) 115 seats. The RJD won 22 seats.

Political experts say the fight for seats is inevitable in the wake of the merger.

“Seat sharing is bound to be a big issue in the view of the merger. Not just for the sitting MLAs (members of legislative assembly) of the JD(U), but also those who finished second in their respective seats from both the RJD and the JD(U) would like to retain their seats. Both are prominent parties and so division of seats to be contested will be difficult," said Shashi Sharma, head of political science at Patna University. “And the problem will not end there. Even if they manage to form a government in the state, it would be a weak one. The elected MLAs are bound to squabble over cabinet portfolios too."

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Published: 21 Apr 2015, 12:28 AM IST
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