Won’t field candidates in UP poll: Lalu Prasad Yadav

RJD chief Mr Lalu Yadav said on Tuesday that the party will not field candidates in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

“My party will not contest UP elections as we don’t want to split secular votes there,” Mr Yadav said .

However, sources said that Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav wanted to avoid any direct confrontation with the Samajwadi Party since his daughter Raj Laxmi is married to Tej Pratap, grandnephew of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Meanwhile, party ally in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) is working hard to gain grounds in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and has decided to extensively campaign for his party.

A JD(U) insider said, “Party’s prime focus will be the eastern part of the state as it touches Bihar, and Nitish Kumar is popular in those areas.

“His decision to impose a ban on liquor in Bihar has made him popular in UP and other parts of the country”.

Though Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav remained tight lipped about Mr Nitish Kumar’s decision to field candidates in Uttar Pradesh, he said that his party’s main agenda was to defeat communal forces. “Our agenda is to stop BJP and RSS from coming to power in the country and we will continue to work in that direction. We will support secular forces in Uttar Pradesh,” Mr Yadav said.

Opposition BJP reacted sharply to Mr Yadav’s statement: “He keeps saying these things only to remain in the limelight. The fact is that both JD (U) and RJD are regional parties and has no support base anywhere outside Bihar.”

Talking to this newspaper, UP RJD president Mr Ashok Singh said, “The RJD does not want a further division of secular votes since that would give an edge to communal forces. In Bihar, we managed to get major secular forces on one platform but the situation in Uttar Pradesh is different. Hence we will not jump into the fray and divide secular votes.”

Though Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav has asked all secular forces to join hands, sharp differences prevail between the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the JD(U) which rule out the possibility of any alliance in UP on the Bihar pattern.

Mr Nitish Kumar has already launched his solo campaign in Uttar Pradesh and is in talks with smaller parties for an alliance. Mr Kumar is keen on winning over non-Yadav OBCs.

With RJD opting out of the poll fray, it will be an advantageous situation for the Samajwadi Party which will not have to face a division of Yadav votes in the state.

Meanwhile, sources in the RJD said that the party had about half a dozen “serious” candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in UP and they would be “suitably accommodated” in the polls.

The RLD has contested Assembly elections in the past but has never won a seat in UP.