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UPA crisis : Realignment in Bihar |
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The first major threat to the unity of the ruling United Progressive Alliance at the Centre has come from Bihar. Lok Janashakti Party chief and Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has virtually challenged Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav by threatening to dislodge the Rabri Devi-led RJD government in Bihar in the coming state Assembly polls. A new anti-Laloo Prasad Yadav, anti-BJP front is taking shape in Patna, with leaders from the BJP, Janata Dal (United), Bihar People’s Party and the Bihar Vikas Manch flocking to the Lok Janshakti Party.
With Bihar elections less than six months away, leaders of the new front have projected Ram Vilas Paswan as their chief ministerial candidate. They have pledged to oust Laloo Prasad who, along with Chief Minister Rabri Devi, has ruled Bihar for 14 years.
The BJP has been jolted by the exit of former Union Ministers Nagmani and Sanjay Paswan. Nagmani, a backward caste Koeri, has joined Paswan’s party. Others to have done so are Ranjan Prasad Yadav, a former acolyte of Laloo Prasad who floated the Bihar Vikas Manch, People’s Party leader and former MP Anand Mohan - a Rajput - Kali Pandey, a former Independent MP, and former Dal (U) MP Manjay Lal.
Some prominent JD(U) leaders - former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, senior leader Shyamsunder Dheeraj and MLAs Satish Kumar, Ganesh Yadav and Munazir Hussein - are also likely to join the LJP. Ever since he was deprived of the Railways portfolio, which was hijacked by Laloo Yadav, Paswan has been quite open about his bitterness and had made it clear that the would fight the RJD in Bihar.
“We are a viable non-communal alternative in Bihar. The coming Assembly elections in the state will prove that people no longer have to depend on the NDA to fulfil their aspirations to get rid of the anti-people jungle raj of the Laloo Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD),” Paswan said.
Trashing the idea that his tirade against the RJD sat awkwardly with his being part of the UPA, Paswanr said there was no contradiction since it was the Congress that headed the ruling alliance. “I am with Sonia Gandhi and not Laloo Yadav,” he pointed out. Paswan cited the example of the Left parties which support the Congress at the Centre, but oppose it in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, and added that there was no contradiction in his fighting fellow UPA member the RJD in Bihar.
Claiming that he would get overwhelming minority support in the Assembly polls, Paswan said joining hands with the BJP during the last elections was the biggest mistake of his life and he would never repeat it.
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