NEW DELHI: A key BJP ally in Bihar and Union Minister Upendra Prasad Kushwaha today conceded the alliance between JDU) and RJD has made NDA’s work in the coming assembly elections “harder”.
“We will have to work harder now,” Kushwaha, leader of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, told PTI after holding talks with BJP president Amit Shah, who is keen on closing seat-sharing deals with Bihar allies at the earliest following announcement of the electoral tie-up between the two rival parties.
BJP General Secretary incharge of Bihar Bhupendra Yadav and his predecessor and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan were also present in the meeting.
RLSP has been demanding 40-50 seats to contest. Kushwaha, however, declined to comment on the demand, saying it was not discussed.
“We discussed our strategy for the assembly election.
It was an initial talk,” he said.
The party had fielded three candidates in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar in alliance with BJP and won all.
Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP is another BJP ally in the state where the saffron party is also working on former chief minister and mahadalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, a fierce opponent of Nitish Kumar.
BJP appeared to have an edge over its rivals in the key Hindi heartland state as long as RJD and JD (U) leaders squabbled over declaring Nitish Kumar has the alliance’s chief ministerial candidate. However, with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad agreeing to naming Kumar as the combine’s chief ministerial face, the BJP-led alliance may have a tough task on their hands now.
Even as the talks were on, a leader of his party suggested Kushwaha should be projected as NDA’s chief ministerial candidate to counter the RJD-JD (U) alliance’s appeal among the backward castes.
“Kushwahaji is a credible face. He can counter the social justice plank of RJD and JD (U) which BJP cannot,” RLSP secretary general Shivraj Singh asserted.
Kushwaha comes from Koeri community, a backward caste, traditionally opposed to Kurmis, a caste to which Nitish Kumar belongs. Once a protégé of Kumar, Kushwaha parted ways with his mentor.
With Kumar being projected as the chief ministerial face of the ‘Janata Parivar’ alliance, pressure has mounted on BJP to declare its leader as well.
Former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi is seen as a natural choice but a section of his own party is said to be against him.–PTI
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