Bihar SP Picks on Nitish over Congress ‘Tilt’

Patna: Giving yet another jolt to the grand alliance in Bihar, the Samajwadi Party on Monday said that it would contest all the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar. The party had recently shut its door on the secular grand alliance in the state.

The party would field its candidates in all 243 seats, said SP Bihar unit chief Ramchander Singh Yadav.

He accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of hobnobbing with the Congress ignoring Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Claiming that the grand alliance has virtually come to an end with the SP’s decision to quit it, Yadav said, “Now it will only be lathbandhan (clash of lathis) between the JD(U) and RJD.”

Asked on a possible alliance with the Left and NCP, he said, “There have been talks with leaders of both parties. But no conclusive decision has been taken so far.”

The political posturing clearly indicated that all efforts by senior alliance leaders — Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad — failed to mollify the Samajwadi Party chief.

Though the party had contested from 146 seats in the 2010 Assembly elections, it had failed to win even one seat.

If in a neck-to-neck contest this time, the presence of a large number of Samajwadi Party candidates could play a role in dividing the non-BJP votes.

6 Left Parties  Unite for Polls

In a bid to consolidate their electoral base and provide a third alternative in the forthcoming Bihar elections, six major Left parties on Monday decided to join hands and contest all 243 seats.

The decision was communicated during a convention where top leaders of the six parties shared dais to address party workers and supporters here.

The new Left front would take on both the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance during polls.

The Left confederation comprises the CPI, CPM, CPI(ML), Socialist Unity Centre of India(Communist), All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party.

Announcing the decision of Left unity, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “We have been waiting for this moment for years. We were asked why cannot the Left parties unite. Today, we have come together to make the saffron brigade of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and grand alliance of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress bite the dust in the Bihar Assembly elections.”

Hitting out at Modi Government, Bhattacharya said 2014 was the year of election and jumla (rhetoric) and 2015 the year of agitation against the government and saffron party across the country.

He accused RJD chief Lalu Prasad of collaborating with those who massacred Dalits in the state.

Courtesy: Indian Express