New Delhi: The oath-taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar on November 20 is all set to be a mega event with JD-U keen on displaying larger unity of political forces as the grand alliance gears up to take on NDA at the national level. With a large number of leaders from across the political spectrum having confirmed their participation, the party believes that its impact will be seen even during Winter Session of Parliament beginning November 26.
At a time when some NDA allies have also made positive noise hailing Nitish, the JD-U will be taking up issues like centre-state relationship to reach out to parties on the plank of federalism. “People have given a mega victory to the Mahagathbandhan led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar. Hence the oath-taking ceremony will also be a mega one. The impact of this mega event will be there on the Winter Session.
“A larger unity of political parties on issues like intolerance, price rise and Centre-State relationship will be visible when the session begins. We are trying for a larger Opposition unity to take on the NDA,” JD-U general secretary K C Tyagi told PTI. Tyagi said two Maharasthra ministers from Shiv Sena will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish while its chief Uddhav Thackeray called up the Bihar Chief Minister, telling him that he will visit Patna in December and meet him.
Sena had hailed Nitish Kumar’s victory calling him a super hero (Mahanayak). Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has also spoken to the JD-U leadership and is likely to attend the event.
Tyagi said JD-U had remained in NDA for over 15 years and had shared a warm relationship with Sukhbir Badal and his father and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Among Chief Ministers, who will attend the ceremony are AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi, Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, Congress Chief Ministers Tarun Gogoi, Siddaramaiah, Harish Rawat and T. R. Zeliang from Assam, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Nagaland respectively.
The grand alliance is also hopeful of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi attending the event, though there is no final word from the Congreess on it. National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, his son and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will also attend the event, Tyagi said. AIUDF President Badruddin Ajmal, who had termed the Bihar election results as “victory of secularism and defeat of communal and divisive forces”, will also attend the ceremony. Assam is one of the four states that will go to Assembly polls in 2016.
SP Chief Mulayam Singh, who had parted ways with the grand alliance just before the Bihar polls and contested the elections there, leading a separate front, is also likely to attend the event besides former Prime Minister and JDS chief HD Devegowda and INLD leader Abhay Chautala from Haryana. Tyagi, however, said that right now there is no discussion about larger Janata Parivar formation as they are focussed on the oath-taking ceremony of the new government.
Former Jharkhand Chief Ministers Shibu Soren from JMM and Babulal Marandi from (JVM-P) have also confirmed their participation. Nitish, who along with RJD chief Lalu Prasad, steered the grand alliance to a landslide win in Bihar assembly polls, will be sworn in as Chief Minister on Novermber 20 for a third term along with his new cabinet.
RJD is the biggest partner in the grand secular alliance with 80 out of the cumulative 178 seats the grouping has won in the 243-member House. JD(U) has 71 MLAs and Congress 27. 64-year-old Nitish’s name was proposed by RJD parliamentary board chief Rabri Devi and supported by Congress general secretary C P Joshi at a joint legislature party meeting of the three parties in Patna.
Noting that JD(U), TMC and AAP are on the same page on several issues, Tyagi had earlier said that the JD-U feels the time has come to strenghten cooperative federalism in the country. “Apart from strengthening federal structure, we will also raise the issue of the role of the Centre-appointed Governors in states. We will work in close coordination in our fight against BJP,” Tyagi had said. The party has already declared its support to TMC and Mamata Banerjee in next year’s Assembly polls in Bengal.
In Assam, BJP is holding high hopes after it won a record seven Lok Sabha seats out of 14 in Assam in 2014. It had also got the highest votes in 69 of the 126 assembly segments. BJP’s vote share in Assam rose from 11.5 per cent in the 2011 Assembly election to 36.5 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election while that of the Congress came down from 39.9 per cent in 2011 to 29.9 per cent in the general elections.
However, the feeling in Congress is that the Assembly polls are a different ball game and it will be a near impossible feat for the BJP to win the state election there keeping in mind the fact that it had got only five seats in 2011 Assam assembly polls.
“Badruddin Ajmal attending the swearing-in ceremony is significant,” said Tyagi without elaborating. This is an event, which is being attended by both Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Badruddin Ajmal. Soon after the Bihar result Gogoi had talked about the need for a broad based understanding of all secular forces. There is a buzz that Congress and AIUDF can come together in Assam. However, the central leadership of Congress is treading cautiously on the matter.
