The Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar is in trouble ahead of the upcoming state assembly polls as two of its ally the Lok Janshakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party on Sunday played pressure game to bargain for more seats.
Both the LJP and the RLSP have made it clear to the BJP when its national president Amit Shah is in Patna, busy meeting party leaders to chalk out strategy for upcoming polls.
The BJP’s ally in Bihar, the LJP of union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, has announced Sunday to oppose five rebel Janata Dal-United legislators, who are currently associated with former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awami Manch, if they would join saffron party or they would be given ticket as the National Democratic Alliance nominee in the upcoming assembly polls.
The LJP state president Pasupati Kumar Paras said that party would oppose any move of five rebel JD-U legislators to either join the BJP or would be given ticket after Manjhi's HAM would be part of the NDA in the upcoming polls.
The five legislators, including Raju Singh, Anil Kumar, Sumit Singh, Ajit Singh.
“LJP would put its own candidates against them if five of them would be given ticket by BJP or as NDA nominee, to ensure their defeat,” Paras, who is younger brother of Paswan said.
He said that Paswan has already informed about this LJP's condition to the BJP leaders.
“I had also told the BJP leaders not to allow them to join and help and these five JD-U rebel legislators.”
According to the LJP leaders, Paswan and his son Chirag Paswan are angry and unhappy with the five, who were part of 29 LJP legislators, who deserted the party and joined the JD-U in 2005 that helped Nitish Kumar then.
“LJP has decided to oppose the entry of five of them into the BJP or the NDA. It is seen as a set back to the BJP led the NDA in Bihar because any kind of differences will give advantage to the rivals. The NDA, which is gearing up to take on strong combine of the JD-U, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in upcoming polls, is likely to face trouble ahead.
Meanwhile, another BJP ally RLSP on Sunday decided to project its party chief and union minister Upendra Kushwaha as chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar polls.
“RLSP in its executive committee meeting in Hajipur decided that Upendra Kushwaha would be its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar polls,” Arun Kumar, the state president of the RLSP, said.
At a time when the BJP is in dilemma to declare or not its candidate for chief minister post, the RLSP has put a pressure on it.
Soon after the RLSP decided to project Kushwaha as chief ministerial candidate, the BJP leaders have made it clear that only BJP would decide the leader for the top post, not its ally.
BJP MP Ashwani Kumar Choubey said candidate for chief minister post will be from BJP.
Another senior BJP leader and Rajyasabha MP C P Thakur said that BJP is leading the NDA and it candidate for the top post will be from it.
Union minister Radha Mohan Singh said that party parliamentary board will decide the name of chief ministerial candidate.
Last week the RLSP had demanded that Kushwaha should be declared the alliance's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar polls.
The RLSP then said that Kushwaha is the most capable and deserving candidate for the post.
“The people of Bihar want to see Kushwaha as the next chief minister. Taking this view, the BJP-led NDA should project Kushwaha as the chief minister candidate,” he said.
Kumar is the MP from the Jehanabad constituency and is considered close to Kushwaha.
He said Kushwaha is the best face against Nitish Kumar, who was declared the chief ministerial nominee of the JD-U, RJD and Congress combine for the forthcoming polls.
Earlier, LJP announced that Paswan will not be the NDA's chief ministerial candidate.
Chirag Paswan, chairman of the party's parliamentary board, said no leader from the LJP will be the chief ministerial candidate.
LJP Lok Sabha member Ramchandra Paswan, Ram Vilas Paswan's brother, had earlier demanded that the NDA should declare Ram Vilas Paswan as the chief ministerial candidate.
He said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted Ram Vilas Paswan to become the chief minister.
Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who has already announced he would join the NDA in the state, said that he is not in the race for the top job and only a BJP leader would be the candidate.
In the caste-ridden politics of the state, there are over half-a-dozen BJP leaders from the upper castes and the backward castes who have staked their claim for being nominated as the chief ministerial candidate.
Manjhi, a Mahadalit leader, is the president of the HAM, which is eyeing to eat into the traditional social support base of RJD’s Lalu Prasad and JD-U's Nitish Kumar.
