New Delhi: With the stage is all set for a grand contest in the upcoming Bihar election, the RJD-Congress-Left Front combined grand alliance is confident of dethroning the Nitish Kumar led state government.
"We think that the secular democratic coalition which has emerged Left Front aligning with RJD, Congress and some other parties is really a strong one. Our political objective is to defeat BJP and it's alliance," said CPI national general secretary D Raja in an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat on Monday.
Emphasising on a bigger need for a politics and bigger need for a new government for Bihar's development, Raja said that JD (U) and BJP have failed to provide such a government which would have worked for the welfare and development of the state.
The major party in the grand alliance, RJD has decided to contest in 144 seats by giving 70 seats to Congress, and 29 seats to Left Parties (CPI-ML 19, CPI 6, CMP 4) in the 243 seats Bihar Assembly.
The RJD has 81 seats in the State Assembly at present.
"We will be getting a substantial number of seats and our objective is to ensure BJP's defeat. People are annoyed over the misrule of BJP and JD(U)," said Raja.
This election is also important for the BJP following the fact that the party has not been able to win major state elections in the last five years except Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
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In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already held four virtual rallies in September keeping the Bihar election in mind.
BJP's strategy of keeping like-minded parties like Lok Jansakti Party (LJP) together with NDA in this election received a setback after LJP's Chirag Paswan decided to go alone.
"I don't know what is the reason behind the Paswan's decision of fighting alone. It's strange that at one hand they are supporting BJP and on the other hand they will not be with the JD (U). This is a fact that BJP and JD (U) age together...What is this politics? We have to wait to see the reason behind this political game," said Raja.
When asked on the prospect of the grand alliance under RJD, at a time when the party seems looking its ground, Raja said, "A particular party looking its ground is based on assessment. It solely depends on how you assess the situation."
"But I am confident that our grand alliance would win. This combined front can definitely provide an alternative government," he said.
Coming down heavily on the Nitish Kumar led Bihar government, Raja said that the incumbent government has failed in all front.
"There are many issues where the government has failed. There were chaos and mismanagement in handling Covid19 situation. Poor relief work following heavy rains and the floods, and the issue of migrant labour has also not being handled properly. There is huge unemployment in the state and livelihood has become a major problem," said Raja asserting that the grand alliance will highlight all these issues in their election manifesto.
Bihar is going for a three-phase assembly election scheduled for October 28, November 3 and 7. Counting of votes will take place on November 10.
