Regional parties unite to fight against the might of BJP

NEW DELHI: The common political and electoral threat posed by Narendra Modi-led BJP to many regional parties, apart from Congress, has sparked behind-the-scene moves to explore larger unity of political rivals against the emerging saffron hegemony.

If Meerut witnessed a joint rally last Sunday by the perennially quarrelsome members of Janata parivar, the last few days marked efforts to rope in Congress and Left for an anti-BJP re-grouping.

Sharad Yadav, the Janata Dal (U) president who played the anchor role in the Meerut rally after his success in peacemaking between warring Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar to cement a RJD-JD(U) pact in Bihar, has extended its anti-BJP coordination efforts to the Congress and Left camp.

Yadav is trying to tap the wider political links he has built over decades, ironically for anti-Congress mobilisation, for attempting an anti-BJP mobilisation. Earlier this week, Yadav got in touch with some senior Congress leaders for finding a common political ground against BJP. The Congress high command reciprocated by sending AICC general secretary BK Hari Parsad to the JD(U) chief 's residence "to mark a beginning" in exploring a larger anti-BJP alliance in the next battleground state, Jharkahand, where assembly elections are due soon.

The effort is to form an alliance involving JMM, Congress, RJD and JD(U). The fact that Bihar assembly elections are not far away could see extension of the pact to Patna. BJP's determined bid to re-capture UP is also prompting Mulayam Singh to reach out to his estranged Janata parivar and re-work equations with Congress with an additional aim of keeping Mayawati out of the line-up.