UP polls: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar holds strategic meet of JD(U) leaders

Patna: A day after the JD(U) national council meeting which ratified his election as the new party president, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday met senior party leaders to draw strategy for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The meeting was attended by Kumar, former party chief Sharad Yadav, party secretary general KC Tyagi, Bihar party president Basistha Narayan Singh, Rajya Sabha member and Kumar’s close aide RCP Singh and two senior state ministers, Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan. [caption id=“attachment_3047508” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file photo of Nitish Kumar. Reuters[/caption] Tyagi told PTI that the JD(U) chief of Uttar Pradesh Dr Ayub was also present at the meeting to draw strategy for the UP polls and said the meeting also deliberated on expansion programme of the party in other states. Tyagi said JD(U)’s main focus in UP would be to checkmate the BJP as it did successfully getting into an alliance with RJD and Congress in Bihar last year. “Our party chief will play a crucial role in uniting all secular parties to defeat BJP and RSS in UP,” he said. Kumar, in his speech yesterday at Rajgir, had talked about how BJP was trying to rake up its old bogey of Ram temple to reap benefits in the UP Assembly polls. He alleged that ahead of UP election, BJP was talking about the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya in Lucknow. “Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chanted ‘Jai Sri Ram’ at Vijaya Dashmi day in Lucknow, VHP chief Pravin Togadia talked about the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya, an issue which is pending before the Supreme Court,” he said. “BJP and other outfits of RSS are becoming aggressive on Ayodhya in view of the UP poll. We will make all efforts to foil their designs by forging unity among non-BJP secular parties,” Tyagi said. During his recent trips to UP, Kumar had shared dais with RLD leader Ajit Singh, BSP rebel R K Chaudhary and was also in contact with Apna Dal. On Monday at the plenary session of JD(U) at Rajgir, Kumar had made an overture to his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Akhilesh Yadav, who is locked in a family feud, to enforce prohibition which he said would help him come out of the “family shadow” and win the UP Assembly elections. Kumar had also come down heavily on Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and said, “We had offered him the post of president in the reunited Janata Parivar and also the head of the group in Parliament. But, he walked out and the role he played in Bihar elections, it seems brought a curse, which has been manifested in the intense feud in his party.”