The current mood in the Congress is not to ally with the RJD in the coming Bihar Assembly elections even as the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led party is backing the Manmohan Singh government in Parliament.
“The RJD is a liability for the Congress... we should not ally with it if the verdict would be for a hung Assembly,” AICC officials viewed privately a day after the party appointed 39 central observers in Bihar for election preparedness.
Asked whether the Congress can lend its support to the Janata Dal (U) if it leaves the BJP in the post-poll situation, they said: “We can’t say... but backing the RJD would be a disaster for the Congress,” they said.
They feel that chief minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP cannot work together and the JD(U)-BJP combine will not retain its numbers after the elections because of the growing rift between them. This is neither due to personality clash nor the ideological differences between the two but because of the lack of coalition spirit. The BJP is reminding the JD(U) that it is the “national party” and the latter a regional force which can survive only with the BJP’s help. But if the BJP projects Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as the main campaigner and involves hardliners in the poll battle then the alliance could break even before the polling takes place, because this would certainly affect the political constituency of the JD(U). On the other hand, the RJD-LJP would not be able to get a clear mandate in the elections, mainly because Mr Lalu Yadav has not recovered from the lost ground. People have already seen the difference between the rule of Mr Lalu Yadav and Mr Nitish Kumar. Even minorities would not vote en bloc for the RJD, they said. “Lalu Yadav’s historic role is over. He is not the only Mandal messiah or a protector of minorities. This was seen in the Lok Sabha and the last Assembly elections,” Congress leaders pointed out.
The BJP is losing its allies in the NDA. After the BJD, the AGP quit, the JMM left and now a churning in the JD(U) has began on whether or not to remain with the saffron party.
And in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena too is not comfortable with the BJP.