With Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) all set to align with the BJP in Bihar for the Lok Sabha polls, strong resentment surfaced in both the parties.
The sentiment is clear with the resignation of lone LJP MLA Zakir Anwar and former legislator Vijyendra Chaudhary from the party’s primary membership and a large number of BJP leaders expressing their strong resentment against the party decision to go with Paswan point to this. “When there is a strong Modi wave in the state, the decision of giving eightseats to Paswan whose party has a lone MLA and a Rajya Sabha member (courtesy -Lalu Prasad) puts the party in a bad light proving that the wave was just a hoax,” said a senior party leader who didn’t want to be quoted.
“It seems that the BJP leadership has lost confidence in its workers, so it is depending on other parties,” said former Bihar BJP president Gopal Narayan Singh.
Even senior party leader C P Thakur, who rushed Delhi to convey party workers the message, said there was a strong wave in favour of Modi in Bihar and people wanted politicians with integrity to represent them. He is also of the view that this move would weaken the euphoria generated in favour of the BJP.
Another senior party leader and former minister Ashwini Kumar Chaube too termed this likely alliance “suicidal for the party”.
However, none of the senior BJP leaders came out openly defending this likely alliance. Party state president Mangal Pandey tried to avoid any reaction on the issue saying that these matters are decided by the party leadership.
Political observers of the state feel that this is not a natural alliance, so the party workers of both parties would not be able to support allies’ candidates.
Given the poor performance of the party in the last couple of elections, the RJD is not ready to spare more than five seats for the alliance.