SP, Congress restless in UP following political developments in Bihar

Lucknow, Jan 29 (IANS) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar snapping ties with INDIA bloc and again joining NDA has come as a jolt to alliance partners in Uttar Pradesh between Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress. 

Both parties feel that the developments in Bihar have undermined their position in UP against the BJP.

Nitish Kumar not only laid the foundation of the INDIA bloc, but had also worked to unite the opposition on a single platform by meeting with leaders of different political parties and convincing them to join hands against the BJP.

UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that after Nitish Kumar again joined NDA, whatever little was left of the opposition alliance had been blown apart.

“Whether Bihar or Bengal or UP or anywhere else, the opposition is gasping for breath,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav wrote on X: “A new record of betrayal has been made. The public will give a befitting reply to this. There can be no greater defeat than someone not believing in you as a person.”

He said the BJP was never as weak as it is now.

Akhilesh had worked hard to knit the opposition alliance with Nitish Kumar, holding a series of meetings with Kumar in Delhi to draft the strategy for the Lok Sabha election. They had even addressed a joint press conference in Lucknow to send a message of the alliances of the two top OBC leaders among the masses.

The caste census conducted by Nitish Kumar in Bihar had set the ground for the INDIA bloc to target the NDA.

To mobilise the Other Backward Classes (OBC) against the NDA, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress, and the Rashtriya Lok Dal raised the caste census demand in Uttar Pradesh.

Moreover, to break the hold of the BJP over Kurmi voters, the opposition alliance had planned to field Nitish Kumar from either of the three seats -- Phulpur, Mirzapur and Ambedkar Nagar in UP, as these three seats have strong OBC presence.

The opposition leaders felt that Nitish Kumar’s influence over the backward community would help. The Kurmi community vote (7.50 per cent) is decisive in over two dozen Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Maurya, Kushwaha, Shakya and Saini (7 per cent) are those OBCs that share a caste bond with Kurmis. In Bihar, these communities are considered the support base of the JD (U).

A SP leader admitted, “Had Nitish been with the opposition alliance, then along with Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary the rainbow alliance of Yadav- Kurmi-Jat-Muslim would have challenged the BJP in the election.”

SP sources said Akhilesh tried to contact Kumar to convince him to stay in INDIA bloc but his efforts proved futile.

An immediate impact of Nitish Kumar joining the BJP will be that the SP and the Congress will now have to work overtime to keep the alliance intact – even if it means compromising on the number of seats.

If the alliance cracks up in UP, the INDIA bloc will be in danger and the advantage will clearly go to the BJP.

BSP chief Mayawati is keeping a watch on the political development in Bihar as well as turbulence in the INDIA bloc.