In the wake of the Opposition INDIA bloc’s Tuesday conclave during which West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee proposed the name of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the alliance’s Prime Ministerial candidate, the JD(U) seems to have revisited its strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The JD(U), which has been looking to project party supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as the alliance’s PM face for the past several months, is now likely to pitch for a collective leadership for the grouping’s campaign in a bid to foil similar attempts that may be mounted by any of its constituents in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
Although Mamata’s pro-Kharge proposal was endorsed by Delhi CM and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, it did not evoke a warm response from other allies, with Nitish looking visibly upset at the meeting.
On his part, Kharge downplayed the proposal, pointing out that the alliance should first aim to get adequate number of MPs elected before looking to choose their PM candidate.
Although RJD chief Lalu Prasad seems to be in favour of Nitish getting a key role in the Opposition grouping, some fissures between the JD(U) and the RJD have recently surfaced.
Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad, has not shared dais with Nitish over the last few weeks. Tejashwi, who was invited as a chief guest at the ongoing Bihar dairy and cattle expo 2023 in Patna along with the CM, did not turn up at the event. Nitish inaugurated the expo, but he did not make any speech, nor did he talk to media on the sidelines of the function.
Recently, Tejashwi did not share the stage with the CM at the global meet of investors in Patna during which the RJD leader attended a separate session.
Tejashwi had also skipped a recent Nawada function held to launch the transportation of piped Ganga water to Nawada, which was inaugurated by Nitish.
Meanwhile, the JD(U) has asked its leaders to refrain from projecting Nitish as the PM face or putting up any poster making such a suggestion, sources said.
In its poll campaign, the JD(U)’s main line of attack against the ruling BJP would be centred on the Narendra Modi
government’s policies, with the party planning to rake up how the pending funds due to Bihar has been stalled by the Centre besides projecting the Nitish government’s development work and “accomplishments”.
The JD(U) has convened the meetings of its National Executive and National Council in Delhi on 29 December to work out its roadmap for the 2024 polls. At the meetings the party would discuss seat-sharing, campaign and rallies besides reassessing its plank around caste survey and issues related to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs).
The party will also review Nitish’s upcoming visits to several states across the country to address various rallies or gatherings, including in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, from where several caste federations have sent invitations to the CM.
A senior JD(U) leader said, “Mamata Banerjee with support from Arvind Kejriwal surely stunned us by trying to project Kharge as possible PM face. We believe that collective leadership is the way forward.”
Asked if the Congress is not willing to concede the leadership space to its allies even after its drubbing in the recent Assembly polls, the JD(U) leader said, “Congress obviously wants to retain its supremacy in states where it is strong but it has to now show flexibility in ticket distribution in UP, Punjab, Delhi and some other states.”
He also said, “We, as a party, have surely suffered a kind of setback as Bihar caste survey and EBC pitch, used by Congress during Assembly polls, did not quite pay off. These will remain our core issues but it has not paid us dividends vis-a-vis our posturings in INDIA bloc too.”
RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari, however, said: “Nitish Kumar is our alliance leader and our party obviously supports his plans and policies. Deputy CM’s absence at some recent functions could be because of his personal engagements.”
The ED has summoned Tejashwi and Lalu Prasad to appear before it on 22 December and 27 December respectively in the alleged land-for-job scam case.
