Even as the majority of political parties have already announced their lists of candidates for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) led by chief minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar continues issuing “threats” to break alliance with the BJP if the alliance talks fail.
The JD-U is still hopeful of entering into an alliance with the BJP and goes on patiently waiting for it in a move that has earned scorn from the opposition.
Snubbed by the raw deal when the BJP showed no interest in joining hands with its Bihar ally, the JD-U had recently announced to go it alone in the UP assembly polls. That happened after the “empty threats” bore no results as the BJP not only announced its first list of party candidates but also didn’t even mention JD-U as its ally.
Stung by the humiliating treatment, the JD-U later convened a meeting of the party in Delhi on Tuesday to announce its list of candidates but the party leadership once again put on hold the “list of its candidates” as it still looks hopeful of an alliance with the BJP. At the same time, the JD-U has once again issued threats to “go it alone” if the BJP leadership didn’t decide over the alliance soon.
“We will be compelled to field our candidates on at least 51 seats if the alliance talks fail,” JD-U national president Lalan Singh threatened. According to him, the alliance talks are in progress and they are hopeful of reaching a conclusion soon. “But in case of an alliance deal not finalizing soon, we will be left with no option but to release our list of candidates soon,” Singh has threatened.
Curiously, the JD-U had issued similar threats to the Samajwadi Party during the last assembly elections in 2017 when it was not a part of the NDA. Nitish who had launched campaigns in advance at that time with “Liquor ban” his main poll promise, went on constantly asking the SP-led alliance to spare a “respectable” number of seats for his party but the latter just took no notice of his threats. Eventually, the JD-U withdrew from the poll arena, instead of fielding candidates in the elections.
The JD-U just doesn’t have any base outside Bihar and has been able to win just a couple of seats in the past in UP. As such, the JD-U has been unsuccessfully trying to increase its party base across the country and get the status of a national party. What is further disastrous, the JD-U has become a second number party in Bihar itself where it is said to have a base.