JD-U keeping eye on UP elections

Jitendra K Shrivastava

At the recently held JD-U’s two-day National Council conclave in Rajgir on October 16 and 17, the party’s executive not only crowned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as national president, but also gave him more teeth to amend the party’s constitution. In doing so, it seemed to have the Assembly poll in Uttar Pradesh on mind. Also, the party pitched the ground for its mission 2019, declaring Nitish Kumar as ‘PM material’, saying he deserved the post on merit.

A day after Nitish Kumar was crowned national chief, party leaders, including former chief Sharad Yadav, national spokesperson KC Tyagi, Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Verma and Nitish aide RCP Singh, Bihar state chief Bashishtha Narayan Singh and others, attended a closed-door meeting. They charted out the party’s plans with an eye on the Assembly elections in UP and Punjab. They also strategised on how to halt the BJP in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due early next year.

In UP, the JD-U intends to set up and expand roots in all corners. It will be its endeavour to form a grand alliance and register a win or at least checkmate the BJP. “We want Sangh-mukta and BJP-free UP at any cost,” said KC Tyagi, party’s national spokesperson.

In his presidential speech in Rajgir, Nitish said: “We extend our support to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, if he promises to imposes prohibition in UP. Doing so will help him win the electoral battle. Family feud has gripped the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav needs to come out of its shadow, if he is to win again.”

On Mulayam Singh Yadav, he recalled: “We had offered him the post of president of a reunited Janata Pariwar. We had also asked him to head the Pariwar in Parliament, but he spurned our offer. Now, he is grappling with family feud...

“The BJP and its outfits have raised the issue of Ram Temple in Ayodhaya, even as the issue is pending before the Supreme Court. We will strive hard to foil attempts at dividing the society on communal lines.” Slamming the BJP, Nitish said the debate should have been about Dalit atrocities, unemployment and farmers’ woes rather than Uniform Civil Code and triple talaq.

Nitish’s key strategists

In JD-U’s core team, the key strategists hail from Uttar Pradesh. KC Tyagi belongs to western UP, RSP Singh has serves as Fatehpur district magistrate and Pavan Kumar Verma, a former diplomat, hails from UP too. The latter is expected to play a major role in drawing the party’s roadmap for the UP elections.

Nitish had succeeded in uniting the RJD and the Congress and had formed a grand alliance in Bihar last year. The experiment proved successful with the allies winning an overwhelming majority in the Bihar Assembly. JD-U’s National Council believes Nitish should once again unite secular and anti-BJP forces on a single platform in order to checkmate the BJP in UP.

While spreading its feet everywhere, the JD-U is likely to focus on certain constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, such as Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Kanpur, as it lacks homogeneous support across the state, say sources.