Nitish-Lalu merger would benefit BJP: Sushil Kumar Modi

PATNA: The script is all but ready for the merger of the Janata Dal(U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, a political arrangement the BJP quickly dismisses as one that will have no impact on the electorate.

While RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar have been drumming up the rhetoric for a revival of the old Janata Parivar, BJP leaders are taking potshots, especially at Kumar, for aligning with the RJD chief, who they say won’t be accepted by the people.

“The BJP would have faced stiff contest in the state assembly elections if JD(U) under the leadership of Nitishji had fought the battle on its own. But it will be easier for us now, with the JD(U) and RJD merging. Nitishji will lose all the political capital that he had build for himself over the years,” former deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told ET.

There's criticism that doing political business with RJD will come with the baggage of ‘jungle raj’ associated with the Rabri-Lalu regime, a charge which Kumar stoutly defends.

Dispelling such misgivings, Kumar said that such a situation will never arise. “As the merger script of JD(U) and RJD is getting finalised, BJP is planting stories on jungle raj . But I want to assure you that I will not compromise on good governance,” Kumar said.

The JD(U) in principle has accepted the merger proposal and only the formalities are left to be completed

“Both Laluji and Nitishji have made up their minds for the merger. Hopefully things will be formalised after the inauspicious kharmas month, which ends on January 13,” a senior JD(U) functionary said.

The drubbing both Yadav and Kumar received in the Lok Sabha elections forced them to shed their longstanding hostility and forge an alliance to halt the march of a resurgent BJP. The new political arrangement saw the grand alliance performing far better in the by-elections to the 10 assembly seats held immediately after the Lok Sabha polls. Of the 10 assembly seats, the alliance which included the Congress as well, won as many as 6 seats, while the BJP, which had done exceedingly well in the general elections, managed only 4.

But taking forward the alliance script, both Kumar and Yadav pitched for the merger of their parties along with other splinter outfits of the Janata Parivar.