The almost definitive breakup between JD(U) and BJP after their failed seat-sharing talks for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls has started surfacing as a major concern for the two parties running a coalition government in Bihar, making their leaders voice hopes about UP and faith in Bihar.
Since the JD(U), the stronger NDA ally in Bihar than the BJP, decided to go it alone in UP with its own candidates for some 100 seats, many leaders of the two parties in Bihar became concerned about the possible impact of such a development on the Nitish Kumar-led coalition government that has been in power for seven years. For the BJP in Bihar, the unfolding UP situation came as a shock especially because of the JD(U)’s unrivalled growth in the state in recent years.
On Monday, several Bihar BJP leaders said they were “very hopeful” of a rapprochement in UP and that the seat-sharing talks between the two parties was yet to be finalised. But JD(U) leaders sounded decisive about the breakup in UP. The two parties, however, said they had solid faith about the UP developments not have any impact on Bihar’s ruling coalition.
“Since there was no consensus conducive to our party’s prestige, there was no option other than going it alone. But the UP development will have no impact at all on Bihar, where the government led by Nitish Kumar is strong and functioning smoothly with total support from the BJP,” said JD(U) Bihar president Vashisth Narayan Singh.
But senior BJP leader and animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh, asserting that talks were still on in UP, said: “I just spoke over phone with K.C. Tyagi (JD-U national general secretary). The talks will yield positive results”.
Bihar BJP spokesman Sudhir Sharma said: “Whatever the UP situation, its shadow will not fall on Bihar”.