BJP may play tricks, JD(U) on track to become national party: Lalan on Manipur defections
A day after most of its MLAs in Manipur joined the BJP, the JD(U) on Saturday attacked its former ally, who he accused of using “Dhan bal” (money force) to lure MLAs of other parties.
JD(U) national president Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan alleged that the BJP did in Manipur what it had done earlier in Delhi, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
“Our MLAs in Manipur had defeated BJP candidates in the elections. The same is true in Arunachal Pradesh where our MLAs were poached during their stay in NDA.
This development is a matter of shame for the party which is holding its national executive meeting here and trying to project Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its de facto leader for a bigger role.
Lalan, who has been associated with Nitish Kumar for nearly four decades, said, “Whatever the moves the BJP takes, it will not be able to stop the JD(U) from becoming a national party till 2023.”
He said, ‘BJP should take care of itself. In the 2015 assembly elections, none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 42 rallies, but the party could win only 53 seats in the 243-strong Bihar Assembly. He should think about his fate in 2024 when the entire opposition will unite against him.
Referring to Modi’s recent allegations that opposition parties are working to protect the corrupt, the JD(U) chief taunted, “What the BJP is doing to other parties is ‘virtue’ but money power. A united fight against its open use of ‘corruption’. The Prime Minister has redefined these terms”.
He also lashed out at BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi’s remark that it was Bihar’s turn to become “JD-U-must” after Arunachal and Manipur, where the party could be divided by Lalu Prasad’s big ally RJD.
“Let Sushil Modi sell the daydream to his central leadership. It may help him come out of the political jungle,” remarked Lalan.
Five JD(U) MLAs in Manipur on Friday joined the ruling BJP. The JD(U) had won six of the 38 seats in the assembly elections held in March.
