No third front. Main front against BJP will bring saffron party down, Nitish tells party plenary

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who accused the BJP of working against the JD(U) in the 2020 assembly elections despite being in an alliance reaffirmed that parties opposed to the BJP can win with a "huge majority" in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls if they agree to join hands.

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday fulminated against the BJP accusing it of having tried to weaken his Janata Dal (United) by engineering splits and rebellions and vowed to give a befitting reply to the former alliance partner in next general elections. Addressing the JD(U)'s plenary session here, Kumar, the de facto leader of the party, sought to make light of the embarrassing recent defeat in a by-poll and maintained that the BJP could be defeated summarily in Lok Sabha elections if most parties opposed to it came together in 2024.

"They weaned away our MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh. Could they have done anything more sordid while having an alliance with us? The development reflected a trait of theirs that led me to snap ties", said Kumar who walked out of the NDA in August. Referring to the JD(U)'s poor show in the Bihar assembly polls of 2020, he pointed out "never before had they won more seats than we did, be it in 2005 or 2010. All our candidates, winners and losers, later complained to me that they were trying to ensure our defeat".

Notably, the JD(U) has been alleging that BJP, with the help of the then LJP president Chirag Paswan who openly revolted against the chief minister, had hatched a plot in the assembly polls to gain an edge in the assembly where it had hitherto been a junior ally. "I had been reluctant then to become the CM again. I did so only because they importunated me", said Kumar.

Indirectly referring to the JD(U)'s defeat, at the hands of BJP, in the recently held by-poll to Kurhani assembly seat, the Bihar CM said "they seem to be immensely pleased by that one victory. Why don't they remember two earlier defeats as well as losses in other states?" The BJP had lost by-elections to Bochahan and Mokama assembly seats earlier this year.

"Unko to 2024 mein pata chalega" (they will learn their lessons in 2024), said Kumar as he reiterated "all parties opposed to them must come together. Even if most of them join hands, a huge majority shall be guaranteed. The idea is not of any so-called third front. It shall be the main front".

While dwelling upon his prohibition scheme, the longest serving chief minister of Bihar asserted that ban on liquor was in accordance with the beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi, even as he indirectly referred to "no role in freedom struggle" of the RSS, the BJP's parent organisation.

Kumar also complained about the Narendra Modi government having turned a deaf ear to his pleas for grant of special category status to Bihar and taunted that the latter belonged to a state (Gujarat) which was well off even during the British Raj. The function was attended, among others, by the party's national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha and principal national general secretary KC Tyagi.

Lalan alleged that the current regime in the country reminded of "adhinayakvad" (dictatorship) and flagrant misuse of constitutional institutions during the Emergency. He also exhorted party workers from other parts of the country, especially the north-eastern state of Nagaland, to work towards making JD(U) a "national party".

"We need to be recognised in just one more state to become a national party. We fell short by just 0.4 per cent in Nagaland last time. We must do the needful in the elections due early next year", added Lalan. Kushwaha, a strong votary of introducing reservations in higher judiciary, railed against the system of collegium and alleged that family members of judges were being appointed to the Bench.

He also expressed hope of Nitish Kumar becoming the Prime Minister in 2024 and hoisting the tricolour at the Red Fort. Tyagi hailed Kumar as "the only leader in the country who can look Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the eye without fearing CBI or ED". "If Nitish Kumar goes to Delhi, he will achieve in only six months what others could not in several years", added Tyagi. (PTI)