NEW DELHI: JD(U) today said it will sort out differences with Mulayam Singh Yadav over seat sharing in Bihar after Samajwadi Party today pulled out of the ‘grand alliance’ in the poll-bound state saying it felt “humiliated”, days after NCP quit the anti-BJP coalition.
Party President Sharad Yadav merely said “the country is full of internal contradictions” when asked whether it was a major set back to his attempt to bring all non-BJP parties together.
SP today announced its decision to leave the alliance saying it felt “humiliated” as it was not consulted while deciding seats and would contest the Assembly election in the state on its own. NCP had pulled out of the alliance last month even as Left parties have decided to contest Bihar polls separately.
Soon after SP announced in Lucknow that it will contest Bihar election separately, the JD-U Chief told a press conference here said he will find a “solution” after talking to “Bhai (brother) Mulayam”.
“I have seen that. But let me tell you our alliance will remain. We will talk. We will find a solution. I will not go into details but let me assure you it will not hurt our alliance.
“We are old very old colleagues. I have to talk to Bhai (brother) Mulayam. I have talked to him once. I will talk to him again. We will resolve this finally,” Yadav said.
SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is also the leader of the proposed umbrella party of six erstwhile constituents of Janata Parivar.
The JD-U leader dismissed suggestions of SP “playing into the hands of BJP”.
“This angle is not correct. Mulayam Singh Yadav is not someone new. There was a time when he had even got the acronym of Maulana Mulayam. Please do not take out any such meaning.
Political leaders meet among themselves. Even I meet leaders of many parties. Does that I mean I am working in tandem with them.
“We will solve it since a probem as arisen. You have to see the country is full of internal contradictions,” Yadav said.
He was responding to a question whether he suspects that SP was playing the BJP script by walking out of the alliance in Bihar. Mulayam Singh Yadav had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi some time back while party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav reportedly met BJP Chief Amit Shah on Monday before a meeting of NDA constituents.
Ram Gopal Yadav announced the party’s decision to quit the alliance alleging that the bigger parties in Bihar did not consult it while declaring seats.
The SP leader said the party was not happy with the paltry two or five seats offered out of the 243 in the state Assembly.
On the future of ‘Janata Pariwar’, he said at that time itself he had stated that he would not sign the “death warrant” of the party.
The JD-U President, however, refrained from responding to SP’s remarks on the poll issue.
“It will not be appropriate to respond to their (SP leaders’) remarks. They are our friend. We take note of their anger. We will talk to them,” he said.
Sharad Yadav had been trying to stitch a broader alliance for Bihar including Left, NCP, Congress and parties of erstwhile Janata Parivar. The formula being planned then was while JD-U and RJD will contest 100 seats each, all other parties will share the remaining 43 seats.
The alliance at present has JD-U, RJD and Congress. After distancing itself from the “secular grand alliance”, NCP is trying to prop a third front with the Left parties in the state.
“Left had its separate front long back. Our efforts to bring together parties will continue,” the JD-U leader said, claiming that his party has been persistent with its stand.
“Our all desires are not fulfilled,” he said to a question on JD-U having opposed as well as formed alliance with BJP and Congress.
The JD-U President also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his election speech in Bhagalpur rally that the Centre would provide Rs 3.75 lakh crore to Bihar from Finance Commission saying this amount is “no obligation” to the state as it is mandatory under the Constitution of India.
“The Prime Minister has been announcing one or the other packages in different rallies, which shows the desperation of the government. In the packages announced, most of the projects were already in the pipeline.
“The people of Bihar cannot be lured by such false packages as they have been observing what happened in Delhi and Gujarat due to false promises,” he said.–PTI
