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Bihar Assembly Elections 2020: JAP eyes Congress’ backing to enter Grand Alliance
The elections are slated for October-November and maybe held on schedule despite the Covid-19 outbreak
Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) leader Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, has appealed to the Congress leadership to facilitate his party’s entry into the Grand Alliance (GA), which will take on the chief minister Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dispensation in Bihar in the upcoming assembly polls.
The elections are slated for October-November and maybe held on schedule despite the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
Yadav’s appeal followed the exit of the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) from the GA. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, or CPI (M-L), has also parted its ways with the GA over seat-sharing disagreements.
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“I am unconditionally willing to join the GA with a single-point objective to dethrone the NDA government, which did nothing to ameliorate the sufferings of youth, farmers and common people in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and floods in vast parts of north Bihar,” said Yadav, who represents Madhepura constituency in the Lok Sabha.
The JAP leader said that he would be ready to bow down before any GA leader, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, if it led to his party’s entry into the alliance.
“Kumar has taken Bihar for a ride in the name of religion and communal divide. Crores of youth have been rendered jobless due to the wrong policies of the state and the central governments. The Congress should try to persuade LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan to quit the NDA and join the secular brigade,” said Yadav.
Yadav’s wife, Ranjeet Ranjan, had won last year’s parliamentary election from Supaul on a Congress ticket and is currently a secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
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Yadav also commands good influence in Seemanchal and Kosi regions of Bihar, even though the JAP drew a blank in polls in the past.
He had floated his own outfit after he was expelled from the RJD. He had fielded candidates in 64 seats during the 2015 assembly polls. The move proved to be a spoiler at best.
He has also met Shaktisinh Gohil, AICC in-charge for Bihar, at Sadaquat Ashram, the headquarters of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC), in a bid to seek the party’s support for the upcoming assembly elections.
Yadav, who had won the Lok Sabha elections in 2010 on an RJD ticket, is relying on the Congress for his entry into the GA because the RJD did not warm up to his proposal.
Akhilesh Prasad Singh, a member of the Rajya Sabha (RS) and the chairman of the BPCC election campaign committee, said that the party leaders should consider the JAP’s proposal if it could help the GA to unseat the NDA from power.
However, he evaded a response on the JAP leader’s plea that the GA would perform better, if the assembly polls are fought under the Congress’s leadership.
Mrityunjay Tiwari, a spokesman for the RJD, dismissed Yadav’s suggestion and said his party has been empowered to lead the GA in the upcoming assembly polls.
