Patna: With the RJD-LJP alliance bagging
eight out of 18 seats in the recent assembly bypolls in Bihar,
Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan today said Nitish
Kumar would not have been the Chief Minister had LJP, RJD and
Congress fought elections together in 2005.
Paswan said it was only because of his party's decision
to go alone that Kumar got the advantage of forming the NDA
government in the state.
"Nitish Kumar would not have been the Chief Minister,
had the LJP aligned with the RJD and Congress in the last
assembly polls," he told reporters here.
LJP has bagged three assembly seats out of the 18 seats
which went into bypolls last week. Its alliance partner RJD
won five seats while Congress got two seats.
Buoyed by his party's success, Paswan claimed that no
government formation would be possible in the state without
his support after the next year's assembly elections.
"LJP has emerged in Bihar as a major political power...
And I can firmly say that no government in Bihar (after 2010
assembly polls) can be possible without our support," he said.
The LJP, a constituent in the UPA-I but parted ways
ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, had suffered major setback
in the polls with Paswan himself losing his Hajipur seat in
Bihar.
However, the party wants to enter into an alliance with
the Congress and RJD to contest the 2010 Assembly polls in
Bihar and the Jharkhand assembly polls due early next year.
On Nitish Kumar's statement on NDA's poor performance in
the bypolls due to the presence of Congress nominees in all
the 18 seats which had benefitted the RJD-LJP front, Paswan
said Kumar was making the statement "out of sheer
desperation."
"He (Kumar) knows the writing on the wall and he
is finding the way for a graceful exit", he said.
"If one combines the total votes of RJD and LJP in the
bypoll, he can easily understand where his NDA stood," Paswan
said.
In reply to a question, the LJP leader attributed the
debacle of the RJD-LJP front in the last Lok Sabha polls to
lack of time in forging the alliance.
"We have now established better mutual coordination
and support from village to the state level and people are
looking up at us with great hope to rid them of the corrupt,
ineffective and inefficient government led by Nitish Kumar",
Paswan added.
Paswan said had the RJD, LJP and Congress contested the
bypoll together, the NDA would have drawn a blank.
The LJP chief who arrived here from New Delhi was given a
rousing reception by his party activists with trumpets and
slogans like "suraj, dharti, asman -Ramvilas Paswan (Paswan
holds sway everywhere).
He greeted his supporters and thanked the people for
their faith in the front and said the bypoll results proved
beyond doubt that the people of the state had rejected the
"hollow and tall" promises of Nitish Kumar.
"The results have proved that the people will vote
aggressively against Nitish in next assembly elections", he
said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 20, 2009, 18:33