Buoyed by the grand victory of the Grand Alliance, Bihar leaders have started toying with the idea of putting up chief minister-designate Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial face against the BJP’s N
Buoyed by the grand victory of the Grand Alliance, Bihar leaders have started toying with the idea of putting up chief minister-designate Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial face against the BJP’s Narendra Modi in 2019.
Holding Mr Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah solely responsible for “communising” the Bihar Assembly polls, the socialist-secular leaders of the Grand Alliance want all anti-BJP-RSS forces to join hands “against the communal forces” raising their heads in the country. Though the parties — the JD(U), RJD and the Congress — were numerically weak in the Lok Sabha, the “Bihar initiative” was aimed at disturbing Mr Modi’s sleep in the coming days. RJD chief Lalu Yadav has already announced a political war against the Prime Minister and the BJP, after the formation of the government in Bihar.
The “kingmaker” will begin his “anti-Modi” campaign from Varanasi, the constituency of Mr Modi, and is then expected to move ahead. Mr Yadav has also indicated that he will even campaign in New Delhi and West Bengal.
Observers see this as an effort to “prepare the ground for the 2019 Lok Sabha election”. They said: “The Bihar victory has given Lalu Yadav an edge and it has also made him restless. His political tour can be seen as his campaign for the next Lok Sabha. He was barred from contesting but he can play a crucial role in national politics.”
It may be noted that non-NDA parties, which later formed the Grand Alliance had jointly won only 49 out of 543 seats in the Lok Sabha election in 2014. The Congress had won only 44 seats while the RJD and the JD(U) four and two seats respectively. The Congress won only one seat from Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls.
Mr Nitish Kumar could bank on the support of Arvind Kejriwal whose Aam Aadmi Party has four MPs.
