Mulayam walks out of grand alliance : The Tribune India

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Bihar Election

Mulayam walks out of grand alliance

NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party (SP) rendered a body blow to the newly found “Mahagatbandhan”, a coalition of parties opposed to the BJP in Bihar, by unilaterally walking out of the agreement.



Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

The Samajwadi Party (SP) rendered a body blow to the newly found “Mahagatbandhan”, a coalition of parties opposed to the BJP in Bihar, by unilaterally walking out of the agreement.

The party claimed it was “humiliated” at being allocated just five seats in the 243-member Assembly election and announced it would go it alone in Bihar.

The JD-U and RJD earlier decided to contest 100 seats each but to placate the SP, the RJD gave up two of its seats and added the three of the NCP that walked out earlier. The Congress will contest 40 seats.

The development comes as a setback both to the move by the JD-U and the RJD to take on the challenge being mounted by the BJP and virtually puts an end to the grand plans of six parties, including the INLD and JD-S, to reunite the Janata Parivar.

“In Bihar, the party will contest separately. The bigger parties in the alliance did not consult us while declaring seats due to which the SP felt humiliated. This is not the gathbandhan dharma,” SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said in Lucknow.

The move to snap ties with the coalition was arrived at a meeting of the SP Parliamentary Board which was attended by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was instrumental in bringing both JD-U leader Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on the same stage.

The immediate impact in Bihar could be a division of secular votes, though there is an argument that the SP does not have a base that could make a difference. Indications of that all was not well between the SP and the other two constituents— JD-U and RJD— came when Mulayam Singh Yadav last Sunday skipped the Panta rally that was attended by Janata Parivar leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

JD-U chief Sharad Yadav launched a damage-control exercise by speaking to Mulayam Singh Yadav maintaining that differences with the SP will be sorted out asserting the alliance will remain intact. “We are old colleagues. I have to talk to Bhai (brother) Mulayam. I have talked to him once. I will talk to him again. We will resolve this finally,” Sharad Yadav told reporters in Delhi, hours after the SP announced its decision.

Asked to comment whether the decision could have been influenced by the BJP in the light of recent meetings between Mulayam Singh Yadav and PM Narendra Modi and Ram Gopal Yadav-Amit Shah, the JD-U chief, who worked for the re-uniting Janata Parivar, disagreed with the interpretation.

“Mulayam Singh is a seasoned politician. He was once given the sobriquet of Maulana Mulayam. Political leaders meet among themselves,” he added.

Congress’ PC Chacko hoped that Mulayam would reconsider his party’s decision to strengthen secular forces against the BJP. Reacting to the developments, the BJP and its ally Lok Janshakti Party headed by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan took potshots at the Parivar saying that it has accepted defeat even before the polls.

The SP move to break away from arrangements is not the first. It broke ranks with the Peoples’ Front in 2002 to back APJ Abdul Kalam as the President as against the Left plus plan to field its own candidate. The in 2008, Mulayam sided with the Congress by dumping the Left on the nuclear deal and this August, he tried to work with the government to break the logjam in Parliament.

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