Bihar: JD-U Differs With Nadda’s Claim That Only BJP Will Survive

Patna: A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda claimed that only the BJP would survive and all other parties- including regional parties, would perish in the country, its ally Janata Dal-United (JD-U) refused to accept it and the opposition- including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Left and Congress have termed it a dangerous thought for a democracy.

Nadda, during the last day of his two-day visit to Patna to participate in his party’s programmes on Sunday, reportedly said that all parties will extinct and only BJP will survive. In the coming times, only ideologically driven parties like BJP will survive and all regional parties which are controlled and managed by families will perish.

Nadda said also said that the BJP in Bihar has been fighting against the RJD- a dynastic regional party and that in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh it had defeated Samajwadi Party- another dynastic regional party. Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, a family party is struggling for survival, in Odisha Biju Janata Dal, a regional party in power is one man party of chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Congress has become a brother-sister party.

Ironically, Nadda was silent on ideologically driven Left parties.

“Regional parties have emerged following the failure of national parties to fulfil the regional aspirations of people. It is useless to predict that regional parties will become extinct. As far as JD-U in Bihar and BJD in Odisha are concerned, everyone knew about their agenda of development,” senior JD-U leader and former minister Niraj Kumar told NewsClick.

In recent months, JD-U has not only expressed its differences with BJP’s Hindutva agenda, but it has also opposed the Centre's proposal of the Agnipath scheme and the Union Home minister Amit Shah's announcement to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The JD-U also took a different stand from the BJP on three other issues- the caste-based Census, the Pegasus spyware scandal, and population control.

Senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwary cautioned that democracy would be in danger if Nadda’s dream of only the BJP surviving is realised. ”Regional parties will survive till regional aspiration will get its place in national politics. BJP has been facing tough challenges from regional parties like Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, DMK in Tamil Nadu, BJD in Odisha, JMM in Jharkhand and TSR in Telangana,” he told NewsClick.

Tiwary believes that Nadda’s statement underscores the party-mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) agenda in which there is no scope for democracy and other parties.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) leader Manoj Kumar told NewsClick, “Nadda was talking about ideologically driven BJP. It is not true because the party's main ideology is to remain in power by hook and crook. The party that promotes hatred, divides society, sells all public sector firms, failed to provide jobs to youths and in controlling inflation, will be dumped by people from all regions.”