Patna: The Communist Party Of India launched JNU Students’ Union former President Kanhaiya Kumar in Bihar’s electoral politics during an anti-BJP rally in Patna on Thursday.
However, the Left party’s efforts to project the ‘Bhajpa Harao, Desh Bachao’ rally as a platform of Opposition unity received a setback as Grand Alliance leader Tejashwi Yadav chose to distance himself from the event.
Though Tejashwi sent his party men to the rally, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) sources told News18 that he was sceptical about the show of strength as the Left parties are not a part of the Grand Alliance yet. The Congress sent senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad from Delhi to attend the event.
Giving his first political speech from the party platform, Kanhaiya acknowledged that there was no single party that could defeat the BJP and urged all opposition parties to unite for the purpose.
Kanhaiya referred to the three FIRs filed against him and an alleged attack on him in Begusarai, from where he is likely to contest the next Lok Sabha election, and alleged that the Nitish Kumar government was being run by miscreants who were trying to declare him a ‘goonda’.
The former JNUSU president took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for celebrating the birth anniversary of Congress leader and Bihar’s first chief minister Shri Krishna Singh, saying: “On one hand, they vow to make the Congress disappear from the political landscape and on the other, they are worshipping a great Congress leader today,” he added.
Addressing the 40,000-strong crowd at Gandhi Maidan, Azad accused Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of playing into the hands of the BJP. "For the first time, I can see a chief minister being abducted. This is the reality. The BJP has abducted Nitish Kumar. This is the same Gandhi Maidan from where a decision was taken to project Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial face in 2015. Today all decision makers are present, except Nitish Kumar, who has solemnised a new marriage,” he said.
Azad also launched an attack on the Narendra Modi-led Centre, criticising it for demonetisation and the recent turmoil in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Terming the note ban the biggest conspiracy of the Union government, Azad accused BJP leaders of using the move to convert their own black money to white and claimed that demonetisation had cost the country 35 lakh jobs.
CPI Rajya Sabha MP D Raja, meanwhile, targeted the Sangh, alleging it was dictating the Centre on various issues, including the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He said the Sangh was putting pressure on the government to come out with an ordinance for the construction of the temple. Accusing the Modi government of fooling the common man, Raja quipped that poor people were still waiting for ‘achhe din’.
Newly formed Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader Sharad Yadav warned that if re-elected, the Modi government would take away people’s right to vote. “The tall promise of providing two crore jobs has miserably failed. Democratic institutions are being targeted and the country is facing an undeclared emergency,” he said.
Reacting to the rally, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday called it a “failure”.
The senior BJP leader also targeted Tejashwi Yadav, saying by skipping the rally and meeting people with criminal backgrounds during his ongoing "Samvidhan Bachao Nyay Yatra", the RJD heir apparent had made his preferences clear.
"The Left parties have lost the people's trust on account of their unflinching support to the 15-year-long Lalu-Rabri rule in Bihar which was marked by massacres of the poor and scandals like the former scam", Sushil tweeted.
"Rallies like the one held today cannot make the Left a match for the NDA government in the state, which is devoted to the progress of 11 crore people of the state. The failure of the rally has deflated the opposition's prospects of putting up a unified fight", the Deputy CM added.
In an another tweet, he alleged "the Left parties had not only kept silent over the lawlessness that prevailed during the Chief Ministership of Lalu and Rabri, in a bid to get the patronage of power, they also gave a cold shoulder to ghastly events like the killing of student leader Chandrashekhar".
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