New Delhi: Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday rubbished the possibility of the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alliance lasting till assembly elections in Bihar next year.
In a similar vein, he also dismissed attempts to bring together non-Congress and non-BJP parties saying neither Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav nor the Left and Trinamool Congress could remain together.
"Lalu and Nitish cannot fight together. They are not going to remain together. When the flood water comes gushing down, snakes, scorpions and rats all climb together on any tree and stay there. They have come together due to the Narendra Modi wave. But their unity is not going to last. Most probably they will fall apart by the time assembly elections are held. If somehow they fight the polls together, they will not remain united after the polls," Paswan said.
Paswan argued that when BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP combines could not fight the elections together in Maharashtra, how can RJD and JD(U), which have fought each other bitterly for ten years, remain together and still meet the aspirations of their respective party workers.
"You will see it when the ticket distribution begins for assembly polls in Bihar next year," he said.
The minister, whose Lok Janshakti Party is an ally of BJP in Bihar and had lost the lone seat it contested badly to JD(U)-RJD in assembly bye-elections, stressed that the rival parties like JD(U), RJD and Congress in Bihar 'panicked' after the Modi wave in Lok Sabha polls, which saw NDA winning 31 of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Ram Vilas Paswan's son and MP Chirag Paswan maintained BJP, LJP and RLSP, which had contested the Lok Sabha polls together, will fight the assembly polls together and the issue of Chief Ministership will not be a problem.
The LJP chief, who had walked to shoulder to shoulder with Lalu Prasad, Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar in the socialist movement, also scoffed at attempt to bring together the splinter groups of the old Janata Party and the subsequent Janata Dal saying "these efforts won't succeed."
Chirag Paswan, who heads LJP's Parliamentary Board and was the prime mover for his party's decision to break from UPA and align with BJP, claims the alliance of the three parties---BJP, LJP and RLSP headed by Upendra Kushwaha in Bihar--will romp home in the next Assembly polls.
"Chief Ministership won't be an issue," he said, dismissing reports about the chief ministerial ambitions of Kushwaha.
"All allies of NDA will fight together in Bihar. Who will be the Chief Minister will be discussed later. No party is making it an issue. It is not a priority for us now. We are not concerned with it. The priority for us is not who will become Chief Minister," he said.
To repeated questions as to who will be the face of the BJP-LJP-RLSP combine in Bihar for next assembly polls, the LJP Parliamentary Board chief said, "Ee will cross the bridge when it comes."
Lambasting the JD(U) government headed now by Jitan Ram Manjhi in Bihar after Nitish Kumar's resignation as Chief Minister this year, Chirag alleged the law and order in the state has reached its nadir and atrocities against Dalits and minorities have risen.
"For the first time in my life, I heard of a terror strike in Bihar. The state government has taken people of the state for granted," he said.
Terming Manjhi as a "dummy", Chirag alleged the Chief Minister has no power.
"He has always been a dummy Chief Minister. He has no power. Their party should have decided that he would be their next CM candidate for 2015 assembly polls but that is not there."
In the 2010 assembly elections, JD(U), RJD and Congress had together polled 49.83 per cent of the total votes, against 23.21 percent of BJP and LJP. BJP and JD(U) had then formed a government in alliance, which broke down last year with Nitish Kumar strongly opposing the projection of Narendra Modi as PM candidate for Lok Sabha polls.
The combined vote share of RJD, JD(U) and Congress in 2014 general elections was 44.3 per cent against NDA's vote share of 38.8 per cent. RJD and Congress had fought together while JD(U) separately against a resurgent NDA which won 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats. RJD could win 4, Congress and JD((U) two each and NCP one.
But JD(U)-RJD alliance won 6 of the 10 assembly seats in the August 21 bye-elections.
Among NDA allies, BJP had contested nine seats and could win only four in the bypolls. LJP had got one seat and its candidate lost to JD(U) with the highest margin in the bypoll. RLSP did not contest any seat.
In 2010 assembly poll, BJP had won 6 of the 10 seats which went to bypolls, while RJD was victorious on 3 and JD(U) in 1.
The results this time have been interpreted by political experts as "Mandal forces" represented by Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar stopping the march of "Kamandal" (BJP) that appeared in sight after the Lok Sabha polls.
