LJP to go solo in Bihar elections
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who has over a period of time built a reputation of being an excellent reader of voter mood announced that he’d go it alone in Bihar in the coming mid-term polls.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has formally announced the burial of the UPA in Bihar. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who has over a period of time built a reputation of being an excellent reader of voter mood, on Sunday announced that he’d go it alone in Bihar in the coming mid-term polls.
Mr Paswan’s assertion, made in the Bihar capital, is likely to come as a severe blow to the RJD’s gameplan of retaining its strength in the Lok Sabha after the next round of electoral battle, whenever it is held. Aware that he was on a weak turf in the Nitish Kumar-administered Bihar, railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had shed his hostility towards Mr Paswan, and was, in fact, going out of his way to keep him in good humour.
Even though a section of political observers believe that Mr Paswan’s remarks could be in the form of mere posturing, hoping to wangle a better seat-sharing deal from Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, it is generally agreed that the LJP chief could actually be gearing up to maintain equi-distance from the UPA and the NDA camps. This stand is expected to facilitate his task of leveraging his position properly in the event of a hung Parliament.
“Though early election are not in the interest of the masses, at the same time, we’re preparing to face it. The LJP will go it alone. There is no meaning of the UPA in Bihar,” the union chemicals and fertiliser and steel minister told newspersons in Patna on Sunday.
In the 2004 general election, the RJD had joined hands with the Congress and the LJP to defeat the JD(U)-BJP alliance in Bihar. The “secular” alliance came up with an impressive performance, with the RJD alone bagging 23 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, while the LJP won four seats. The NDA had to rest content with a mere 10 seats.
In the assembly elections held a year later, Mr Paswan, however, severed his ties with the RJD and contested it alone. This became one of the crucial factors in ensuring the RJD’s defeat.
Mr Paswan’s assertion, made in the Bihar capital, is likely to come as a severe blow to the RJD’s gameplan of retaining its strength in the Lok Sabha after the next round of electoral battle, whenever it is held. Aware that he was on a weak turf in the Nitish Kumar-administered Bihar, railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had shed his hostility towards Mr Paswan, and was, in fact, going out of his way to keep him in good humour.
Even though a section of political observers believe that Mr Paswan’s remarks could be in the form of mere posturing, hoping to wangle a better seat-sharing deal from Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, it is generally agreed that the LJP chief could actually be gearing up to maintain equi-distance from the UPA and the NDA camps. This stand is expected to facilitate his task of leveraging his position properly in the event of a hung Parliament.
“Though early election are not in the interest of the masses, at the same time, we’re preparing to face it. The LJP will go it alone. There is no meaning of the UPA in Bihar,” the union chemicals and fertiliser and steel minister told newspersons in Patna on Sunday.
In the 2004 general election, the RJD had joined hands with the Congress and the LJP to defeat the JD(U)-BJP alliance in Bihar. The “secular” alliance came up with an impressive performance, with the RJD alone bagging 23 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, while the LJP won four seats. The NDA had to rest content with a mere 10 seats.
In the assembly elections held a year later, Mr Paswan, however, severed his ties with the RJD and contested it alone. This became one of the crucial factors in ensuring the RJD’s defeat.
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