PATNA: All eyes are set on Thursday’s crucial meeting of the opposition grand alliance to discuss seat-sharing among its six constituents for the upcoming assembly elections due later this year.
The meeting will be attended by senior leaders of RJD, Congress, CPI-ML, CPI, and VIP.
Thursday’s meeting is also expected to deliberate upon the declaration of the Chief Ministerial face of the opposition vis-à-vis NDA’s Nitish Kumar.
RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has himself declared as the CM face of the opposition, while Congress is in favour of deciding the CM candidate after the assembly election results.
Former Bihar minister and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani has already said that his party would contest the assembly election under Tejashwi’s leadership and also reiterated that he would remain in the GA.
“Even if we get less number of seats, we will fight the elections as part of the grand alliance,” he added.
However, the focus will be on former Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras-led Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) which snapped ties with the BJP-led NDA, alleging that his party was being ignored by the NDA leadership.
RLJP was not offered any seats in the Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, his nephew Chirag Paswan led LJP (RV), was allotted five seats. There is a buzz in political circles that RLJP may join hands with the grand alliance.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad had attended the ‘dahi-chura’ feast hosted by Paras, indicating the former’s soft stance towards Paras, the younger brother of former union minister late Ram Vilas Paswan.
“If Paras joins the opposition bloc, it will eat into the Dalit votes of the NDA,” said a political analyst. He said the Dalits constitute nearly 19.65 per cent of the state’s population, and Paswans among them constitute about 5.3 per cent. With Paras’ coming into the opposition bloc, the latter will be able to narrow the gap between GA and NDA.
In the 2020 assembly elections, the opposition won 110 of the 243 seats, 12 short of the magic number (majority mark) to stake a claim for the formation of the government.
Paras at a presser on Monday contended that RLJP would enter into an alliance with the party that would give him respect and a respectable number of seats in the upcoming assembly elections.
“We were not given a fair deal while remaining in NDA,” Paras said, adding that his party and its leaders were given a raw deal both in the state and at the centre, the former Union Minister said.
On the contrary, the NDA comprising the BJP, JD(U), HAM, and RLM has expressed confidence in the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Its endeavour to win over VIP chief Mukesh Sahani ahead of elections, however, proved futile. Sahani is unhappy with NDA apparently, for causing extensive damage to VIP.
VIP currently has no MLA in the 243-member state assembly. It’s lone MLA, Raj Kumar Singh, later joined JD(U) led by Nitish Kumar. Party MLC Nutan Singh also shifted her loyalty and joined BJP.