New Delhi: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has started the ‘mahagathbandhan’ move in Uttar Pradesh to have partnership among various political parties to challenge BJP in the next year assembly elections.
The JD(U) is working to seek the tie ups for smaller outfits assuming to combine the bigger “secular” parties. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have rejected the move and the defender of the campaign are hopeful of winning over the Congress.
A meeting was held by Nitish on Wednesday with Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary, the JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, Rajya Sabha MPs K C Tyagi, RCP Singh, Apna Dal chief Krishna Patel, wife of late Sonelal Patel, and Dr Ayub of Peace Party.
All the smaller outfits are going to support RLD though they are limited to certain districts of western UP, they have a decent candidate in Bikapur pocket of Faizabad. If the move progresses well, Nitish may even campaign in the region given the strong concentration of Kurmi voters.
This joint candidate of the smaller front will tackle the ruling SP which has fielded the son of a former MP. The BSP is not going to contest the general elections next year.
The meeting was conducted in Ghazipur in eastern UP by Nitish on Tuesday. JD(U) has been seeking help from Congress who is an anti-BJP to change the political atmosphere generated by the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But the Congress rejected the alliance proposal for Assam elections where it was asked to join hands with AIUDF and BPF, JD(U) hopes that since Congress has shrunk badly in UP, it may be helpful for a “secular” front.