Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar while sharing a dais with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Congress general secretary C.P. Joshi said that BJP was conspiring to divide the nation through their false promises to achieve their nefarious objectives but the formation of “grand alliance” would foil their plot.
Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav had jointly formed a secular front in Bihar after their efforts to bring all erstwhile Janata Pariwar parties on one platform failed to take off.
Nitish Kumar while addressing the media jointly at his official residence on Wednesday announced a seat sharing formula.
“JD(U) and RJD will contest on 100 seats each and Congress party will contest on 40 seats and if Nationalist Congress Party joins the alliance we will give the rest of the three seats to them,” Mr Kumar said.
Speaking on the occasion RJD chief Lalu Yadav vowed that the secular front would pave way for the ‘ghar wapsi’ of BJP in the coming elections.
Using the occasion to attack BJP, Lalu Yadav said “we will jointly launch a campaign at the grassroots level to create awareness among the masses about how the BJP was trying to lay a trap and it will begin reflecting from August 30 when we will jointly address a Swabhiman Rally in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan which will fail all of PM Narendra Modi’s rallies in Bihar”.
Adding, Mr Kumar said the alliance will have a common minimum programme and all the alliance partners including the Congress party would campaign jointly for the coming elections.
Congress general secretary C.P. Joshi said that the party agreed to join the alliance as it felt that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bigger threat to the nation”.
He said that party would meet in New Delhi to further draw a strategy to participate in Swabhiman Rally. He indicated that central leaders may also join the rally on August 30 swabhiman rally.
Lalu Yadav said that he agreed to get into an alliance with JD (U) despite all differences between them to save the nation from falling into the hands of communal forces. Accusing PM for giving clean chit to Shivraj Singh Chouhan led Madhya Pradesh government and to Rajasthan Mr. Yadav said “BJP only speaks but they don’t act, Mr Modi gave clean chit to the Madhya Pradesh government during his Parivartan Rally in Gaya despite Vyapam Scam.”
NCP out of alliance in Bihar
The anti-BJP alliance in poll-bound Bihar on Wednesday suffered a setback with Sharad Pawar’s NCP deciding to pull out after it was given a mere three seats out of the total 243 seats.
NCP leader Tariq Anwar said he has convened a meeting of party leaders to decide the future course of action and said that the party could even go alone in the state.
