Lucknow: The opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh are not strong enough to have choices. Therefore, they are ready to support any leader who is ready to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A few opposition parties may not back West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the challenger of Modi. The responsibility to do that may fall on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Banerjee has said that Kumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav will tie up for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Yadav also said that he would support Kumar. He made the statement at a meeting with the latter who paid a courtesy call to veteran SP leader and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav who has been admitted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. There are many problems in the SP. Most of his allies have made a flight, besides there is resentment against his leadership in the party.
Akhilesh Yadav has met both Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and Banerjee, but none of the two have any base in UP. By supporting Kumar, SP can hope to get some Kurmi votes. According to sources in Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), Kumar is keen to bolster his base in UP. Therefore, SP hopes to have an alliance with the JD-U. Similarly, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which has a tie-up with the SP, has eight legislators in UP. They have decided to stand by the SP’s decision to back Kumar. Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) Jayant Chaudhary, too plans to support Kumar. The real problem is, however, supremo of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Her statement on Saturday that the SP has links with criminals may be a hurdle in the way of opposition unity in the state.
