JD(U) pitches for joint campaigns by INDIA leaders to bolster people's confidence

Ajay Kumar
Patna, Dec 9 (IANS) The loss of the Congress in the Assembly elections in three states could prove to be a trigger point for regional parties to show unity with the grand old party in order to challenge the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

With the Congress being on the back foot after the recent losses, it cannot turn a blind eye to the importance of regional parties of the country anymore.

This could be the reason why Nitish Kumar, who was critical of the Congress party for not paying attention to the INDIA bloc in a CPM rally on October 2, has said that he will go to the next meeting of the Opposition alliance.

“We firmly believe that an Opposition alliance cannot be possible without the Congress. If we analyse the vote percentage of the three states, the grand old party has not got fewer votes. The basic thing is publicity,” said Neeraj Kumar, JD(U) MLC and chief spokesperson.

“The BJP lost the election in Telangana despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi doing the road show. He did not dare to go to Mizoram for the election campaign due to the Manipur violence but the media did not play up this fact. The BJP has been wiped out from southern states and is present only in the Hindi heartland, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. So, we will chalk out a plan to defeat the BJP in these states,” he added.

“As per our analysis, combined efforts will give better results. If the Congress had done the same in the Assembly elections in the three states, the results might have been different,” Neeraj Kumar said.

He pointed out that contesting elections was a different thing, but if the INDIA bloc had campaigned together and big leaders like Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and top leaders of the DMK and Left parties had shared the stage with the Congress party, it would have instilled confidence in the people in the INDIA bloc and the Congress.

"We always said that the ‘one seat, one candidate’ formula was required to defeat the BJP and the Congress should consider this point seriously. However, despite such a poor result, there is no need to despair,” Kumar said.

Asked about the anti-women and anti-Dalit statements of Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) MLC said that such statements have no impact in elections.

“We held a ‘Bhim Sansad’ in Patna and over 1.5 lakh Dalit people assembled there. So, it is clear that Dalit people are with the JD(U). Compared to our event, the BJP held an ‘Ambedkar Samagam’ in Miller High School ground recently and less than a thousand people assembled there,” Kumar said.

The victory of the BJP has given a chance to some rebels like Sunil Kumar Pintu, the JD(U) MP from Sitamarhi to go against his own party and openly come out in support of the BJP and Narendra Modi.

Reacting to Pintu’s stand, Neeraj Kumar said, “He came from the BJP to the JD(U) in 2019 for the Lok Sabha election. We have asked him to leave the party as soon as possible. You can understand what conscience he has,” Kumar said.

“We have no issues with our alliance partners like the RJD and even the Congress after the recent results. We are working together smoothly,” Kumar said.