JDU unhappy with BJP’s ‘unfair’ treatment

‘To balance the unfair treatment, Nitish Kumar is ignoring the BJP when it comes to decisions taken in Bihar’.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that is for the first time giving a direct fight to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the panchayat polls to be held in West Bengal on 14 May, is facing a funds crunch at the district and block levels, according to several leaders working on the ground.

Several leaders as well as BJP workers who are working and campaigning on the ground for the panchayat elections are banking on local donations and mostly contributions from their own members for conducting rallies and other election activities being organised by the party, according to several BJP leaders in Bengal that this correspondent spoke to.

A BJP functionary from Bengal campaigning for the panchayat elections told The Sunday Guardian: “We have not been given any funds to carry out campaigning activities. Whatever we get as donations from the local people, we have been utilising that; rest all the members along with the candidates contribute money from their own pockets to organise rallies and other campaigning activities.”

Another leader said that they even have to buy flags for putting up in their local areas during election time, from the state BJP office.

“We only got some 100 flags from the state BJP office as allowance. That is not enough for covering even half of the area of a candidate. We need to show the presence of the party in the area; only then would common voters realise the strength of the party. Leave alone flags, even for posters and hoardings, either the candidates or the local unit are contributing towards installing them in his or her area. The Bharatiya Janata Party here has no funds at all. Even for organising a small rally, we need to collect money from our own members,” a BJP leader from North 24 Parganas district told The Sunday Guardian.

However, senior leaders from the Bengal unit of the BJP said that the state unit is itself facing a cash crunch as funds in the state unit’s coffers are not enough to fund every candidate contesting the panchayat polls.

On the condition of anonymity, a senior state leader of the BJP told The Sunday Guardian: “The state unit also does not have enough funds to give to every candidate. We are doing whatever we can do. Elections are a time when everybody contributes for the welfare of the party. We, at the state level, are doing whatever is possible for the candidates.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, said that the “unconditional” support from the common masses for the party has been growing even in the rural areas of the state where the BJP was earlier seen to be weak due to the lack of a strong organisational infrastructure. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) will join hands with Samajwadi Party (SP) to contest the scheduled bypolls to the Kairana parliamentary constituency. The by-election to Kairana will be held on 28 May. As per the arrangements, the SP candidate will be contesting from Kairana.

Kairana, an agrarian belt of Uttar Pradesh, has been in the news for persistent communal tension, and is considered as one of the strongholds of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Kairana seat had fallen vacant following the death of BJP lawmaker Hukum Singh, who had won from Kairana with almost two lakh votes in 2014.

According to sources, the decision in this regard was taken after a long meeting held between senior Samajwadi Party and RLD leaders this week. In the meeting, both SP and RLD also reached an arrangement of taking their alliance further and contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections in 2019 together.

However, an official announcement is yet to come, but it is being said that both RLD and SP are trying to include the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) in their alliance because of the announcement is getting delayed.

Senior leaders from RLD and SP are in touch with BSP supremo Mayawati and there is a possibility of formation of a front against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the scheduled bypolls.

Though the BSP has already declared that it would not take active part in any byelection, BSP supremo Mayawati will be consulted on the matter, as all the parties want to keep things clear among themselves in order to ensure the longevity of the alliance.

True to his style, it was the entry of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Karnataka campaign this week that brought life into what was a very low key election campaign in the state. It took Prime Minister Modi a mere six public rallies to “deflate” the development claims of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The Congress, which had sustained its campaign only on accomplishments of the Siddaramaiah government with the “Siddha Sarkara” slogan, found itself scampering for cover when the Prime Minister called it the “Siddha-Rupaiah Sarkar” at his Kalburgi rally. The Prime Minister has targeted Siddaramaiah on corruption in his government ever since his first appearance in March in Mysore with the “10% sarkar” reference to corruption in the government.

Incidentally, on the day Prime Minister Modi made the corruption charges against Siddaramaiah, the Income Tax Department was busy evaluating the value of seizures from Congress candidate Bheemanna Naik’s residence in Sirsi. Even two weeks ago, raids on another Congress MLA’s house had disclosed crores worth of undeclared Discontent is brewing within the JDU on the way it is being “treated” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ever since party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA fold.

The JDU is upset that there is a lack of initiative as well as intent on part of the BJP to improve coordination between the two allies.

The JDU, according to its leaders, is being ignored at the Centre by the BJP. CM Nitish Kumar, to “balance” this unfair treatment, is ignoring the BJP when it comes to decisions taken in Bihar.

“The relationship is frosty at best. There is no real coordination either at the state level or at the Centre. We have not received a single communication from the BJP on how to deal with issues of national importance when it comes to speaking in one voice. The BJP has not even once called us for consultations on any issue. Is this the way to treat an ally? Was it not the BJP’s responsibility to give us a position in the Union Cabinet?” asked a senior JDU functionary.

After the JDU formally joined the NDA in August last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expanded his Cabinet. However, despite media speculating a berth for the JDU, the party never received any official communication to join the Cabinet. According to him, CM Nitish Kumar, if the situation so demands, will not hesitate snapping ties with the BJP.

“We cannot compromise on self- respect. We have showed this in the past when we broke our ties with the RJD and we are very much capable of doing it again. Lalu Yadav and his sons tried to dominate the decisions of the government, took unilateral decisions and, when it became untenable to stay with them, we ended the alliance. Neither Chief Minister Nitish Kumar nor the party is obsessed with power or the number of seats we would win if we break the alliance. We expect that the basic principles that govern any alliance should prevail. If that does not happen, no alliance can work for long,” he added.

This week, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar carried out major administrative changes in Bihar in which over three dozen IAS and IPS officers were moved from one place to another. The BJP was not taken into confidence; the demands of its leaders were also not met. The JDU feels that if the relations are not mended, then ties will become more fragile when it comes to the 2019 elections when seat sharing talks between the two parties will begin. According to them, the JDU was more than capable to win a massive chunk of seats in Bihar.

“There is no logic in media reports that Lalu Yadav has become stronger in recent times. Lalu’s core voters are Muslims and Yadavs and apart from them, no caste as a bloc is going to support him. But Nitish’s voters are spread across every caste, be it Yadav, Muslim, Kurmi, Brahmin, Rajput or Bhumihar,” another senior party functionary claimed.