LUCKNOW: Having stitched up a new tie-up comprising of Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress by splitting with the BJP in Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar has rekindled hope among the opposition leaders about better prospects in 2024. Many of them have even started projecting Nitish as an
alternative to Modi for the prime ministerial choice.
In Uttar Pradesh, the main opposition Samajwadi Party, too, has accepted Nitish Kumar with a bigger stature. It was well reflected in the posters which cropped up in front of the SP office and a few other places in the state capital Lucknow displaying Nitish and Akhilesh together with the message: “UP+ Bihar = Gayee Modi Sarkar” (if UP and Bihar come together and win more Lok Sabah seats than the BJP, Modi government would not be repeated in 2024).
According to SP senior leader IP Singh, such posters had emerged not only in Lucknow but the campaign was going on across the state. “The new grand alliance of Bihar has already sown the seeds of BJP’s end in the country,” he said.
Even the Bihar CM is also active in uniting the opposition to challenge the mighty saffron brigade in 2024. He has been meeting opposition leaders from across the country, Recently, Nitish Kumar met SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Delhi.
UP and Bihar together send 120 members to the lower house of the Parliament. In 2019, BJP had won over 100 of these 120. However, in previous general elections, BJP and JD(U) were in alliance and had won 39 of the 40 seats.
Significantly, projecting Nitish Kumar as an alternative to PM Modi would be more beneficial for the SP in shoring up its 2024 prospects than backing the candidature of TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata or for that matter Telangana CM KCR, the two others also in the race.
However, so far, whenever and whatever efforts were made by the opposition parties to cobble up an alliance against Narendra Modi, it could not sustain the specific interests and national ambitions of the leaders of different parties.
Moreover, Congress could never agree to shun its claim as the biggest opposition party. Regional satraps have had their own limitations.
As per the JD(U) sources, post-Delhi meeting with Akhilesh, Nitish will come to Lucknow to expand his party’s base in the state and explore the possibility of striking alliances with any regional players from UP ahead of 2024. On the other, the SP camp is also upbeat about the development.
The SP sources claimed that an open arm welcomes to Nitish Kumar by the SP leadership was because the party would always prefer Nitish as a prime ministerial candidate as compared to Mamata Banerjee or Telangana CM KCR as Nitish, a Kurmi by caste, is a natural ally to SP. Nitish as a PM candidate would shore up the SP prospects in caste-ridden Uttar Pradesh where SP would try to tap Kurmi voters.
In 2022, Kurmi voters had shown a partial shift towards the SP. On the other, Mamata and KCR have no base in north India and backing them as PM would do no value addition to the SP support base.