BJP TO ASk RJD,JDU REBELS TO CONTEST INDEPENDENTLY

As Independent candidates, the aspirants will eat into the votes of JDU-RJD alliance, says local BJP leader.

The BJP will not give tickets to rebels from the JDU and RJD, but will instead encourage them to contest independently.

A senior party source said that there are more than 90 Assembly seats where the JDU and the RJD are in direct competition. Since only one of the two parties will put up a candidate because of their electoral understanding, the other party’s candidates are likely to contest independently. “In the 2010 Assembly elections, the BJP had fielded 102 candidates, while the JDU, our ally at that time, had fielded 116. Out of those 116, eight have since been disqualified, while 12 have joined Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party. So there are at least 96 seats that both JDU and RJD are eyeing,” he said.

For the last 5-10 years, candidates from both RJD and JDU have been nurturing ambitions to contest from these seats. Now those who are denied tickets because of the alliance will find it difficult to control their temptation to contest, even if that makes them “rebels”.

“It is in our interest to allow them to contest as Independents, as this will eat into the votes of the JDU-RJD alliance. As it is, there is a long line of candidates in the BJP who have been working for the party for the last many years. We cannot afford to give tickets to rebels at the cost of our own cadre,” said the BJP source.

As for Rashtriya Lok Samata Party leader Upendra Kushwaha’s comment on his becoming the chief ministerial candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the source said: “These things are just posturing. There is nothing to worry about the alliance. The NDA here is intact. As for seat sharing, we will take the right decision at the right time.”

The RJD said the rebels will not be a problem for the JDURJD alliance. “There was initial hesitance among the RJD cadre, after Nitish Kumar was named the chief ministerial candidate by Mulayam Singh Yadav in the presence of our leader Lalu Prasad Yadav. However, gradually, the cadres of both parties have made up their mind to make sacrifices for the sake of the unity of the Janata Parivar. Of course, there are many able candidates in both parties, but whatever decisions the top party leaders take will be acceptable to all. There will be no rebel candidates,” said RJD general secretary Sanjay Yadav. The BJP is already attracting a large number of leaders from other parties. Sources said that more than 40 former MLAs and office bearers of JDU and RJD have joined the BJP in the last few months. Besides, its alliance partners — Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Kushwaha’s RLSP — the BJP will also try to accommodate former CM Jitan Ram Manji’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and expelled RJD leader Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Morcha.