PATNA: With West Bengal Assemnbly elections just a few months away, It appears that the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) is determined to go for a friendly-fight with BJP with the liquor prohibition as one of the main political agendas of party.
The JD(U) has started chalking out strategies to contest West Bengal polls alone if it fails to forge an alliance with NDA ally, BJP, just the way it fought alone in Delhi and Jharkhand Assembly elections in the past.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, West Bengal election in-charge of JD(U) and Bihar MLC Ghulam Rasool Baliyavi said that the party's unit in Bengal has already started working to fight in the assembly poll.
"As of now, the JD(U) has decided to contest on 75 assembly seats, bordering Bihar’s districts, out of the 294-seats. Nitish Kumar's alcohol prohibition success in Bihar would certainly be one of the main agendas for the party to fight the elections in West Bengal," Baliyavi said.
"When Nitish Kumar can bring a drastic change in the society and lives of poor through prohibition, why can't the same be done in West Bengal," he questioned.
Baliyavi said that the JD(U) will talk to BJP regarding contesting elections in Bengal but if it failed to form an alliance with BJP, the JDU will go alone on 75 seats. However, the JD(U) has not succeded in states it fought alone as seen from the Delhi and Jharkhand experiment.
Baliyavi further said that the party has been in touch with the Bengal unit continuously for deciding course of actions for contesting elections. The JDU's Bengal unit is engaged in electoral preparations in 75 assembly constituencies.
The leaders of West Bengal unit will likely meet the party's national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on December 25 and 26 in Patna to decide further course of action for Bengal polls.
Meanwhile, some political analysts of Patna said that the decision of JD(U) to contest the West Bengal assembly election alone may cause distraction for the BJP, which is posing as a tough competition against the ruling TMC in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Sanjay Mayukh told said that there will be no conflict between JD(U) and BJP over elections in West Bengal. He said that if JD(U) contests elections separately, the BJP will have no objection to it but it would be decided by senior leaders of both the parties.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that RJD's leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav has decided to go in support of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.
In Patna, RJD leader Shayam Rajak told the media that the RJD wants Mamata Banerjee to continue as the Chief Minister of West Bengal and it would be decided soon as how the RJD can support her.
Political analysts Dr RK Verma said that if both JDU and the RJD go alone in the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP will have to face opposition not only from the TMC but also from the RJD and its own ally in Bihar, the JD(U).