Congress-RJD alliance casts shadow over JD-U credentials

With no choice but to ally with the Left parties, which it is finding difficult, Janata Dal-United leaders fear that they will not be able to put up a strong secular front before the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Lok Janshakti Party alliance in Bihar.

They blame Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for blowing the chance to join forces with the Congress.

“We have now landed up in a very difficult situation. We will have difficulty in proving a better secular alliance over RJD-Congress-LJP combine while  RJD chief Lalu Prasad  will have none. He can boast of not joining hands with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) at any point of his political career. After remaining in alliance with the BJP for so many years, our claim of being  secular may not convince the minority,” a senior JD-U leader told Deccan Herald.

“Our strong anti-Narendra Modi stance would have led to consider JD-U as a good option, if we had a strong social backing and a proven capability of defeating the BJP.  In contrast,  RJD-led alliance may appear to  be a formidable secular alliance for minorities ,” another senior leader said.

Such views are getting stronger especially in the light of the social equation in Bihar.

RJD leader Lalu Prasad can count on his strong and numerically dominant Yadav community, while Ramvilas Paswan adds his own community’s support to the alliance.

“Muslims may be tempted to go with the numerically stronger community,” admitted a JD-U leader. “The alliance in Bihar is consistent with the national agenda of Congress to confront the BJP. So the minority would prefer it over the JD-U.”

“Nitish Kumar can not present a matching social alliance against the Lalu led formation. His  formula of most backwards among Dalits(Mahadalits) and the most backwards among backwards(Atipichhade) may hardly bring any magic to the poll outcome because the upper castes Bhumihars and Brahmins will upset his gains by opting for BJP,” the leader argues.