Nitish bats for grand alliance to halt BJP's winning spree

With Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar stressing on a grand alliance of opposition parties, the speculation on him joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 'officially' come to an end. Kumar had put himself on the same page with BJP when he had supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi's contentious demonetisation scheme and saffron party's agenda of banning slaughterhouses.

Kumar, while talking to reporters in Patna, urged the Congress and Left parties to take the initiative for formation of grand alliance to stop the surge of the BJP at the national level. The call for the alliance by Kumar has come in the wake of BJP's emphatic victory in politically significant Uttar Pradesh.

According to political experts, the ideal of Nitish is workable under the present scenario, as the fight is not ideological but political. "The politics has taken a sharp turn as winning an election has become the only criteria for BJP rather than sticking to its ideology. The BJP had accommodated all such leaders from Congress or BSP or any other party in the organisation whose chances of winning were high," said noted political commentator Arvind Mohan. "The BJP's victory in UP was mainly because of lack of a Bihar-like 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) there ... If you add the vote percentage of the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the BSP, it is 10 per cent more than the votes polled by the BJP," the Bihar CM said. The JD(U) national president further said, "A Bihar-like grand alliance is the solution to check the surge of the BJP and for this, the Congress and the Left parties should take the initiative. A 'mahagathbandhan' like this at the national level will be 'maha safal' (a grand success)."