JD (U) for 'Bihar model of alliance' to counter BJP

With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Janata Dal (United) on Friday reiterated the formula of forming a 'Bihar model of alliance' at the national level to beat the BJP, which cannot be defeated single-handedly.

"We should not call it a Third Front. If the BJP has to be defeated then the Congress and other regional parties need to unite. The Congress Party should take a lesson from the debacle in Assam," JD (U) general secretary K. C. Tyagi told ANI.

"The Bihar model of alliance can defeat the BJP as a single party cannot defeat the BJP," he added.

Tyagi also said that JD (U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been going across the country to awaken people against the BJP.

"We hope that an understanding will emerge between 2017 to 2019 and a bigger campaign will begin against the BJP nationally," he added.

Responding to a poser on his party's rebuttal to the formation of a Third Front, Tyagi said that it should instead be named the First Front.

"One front is of the Congress and other is of ours. And those who don't want to be a part of the anti-BJP front, there is a big question mark on their commitments," he added.

Tyagi also said the JD (U) hasn't proposed the name of Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial candidate.

"However, few of his supporters and political leaders consider him as a PM material then we have no complaints in this regard," he added.

Tyagi also said several leaders like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RJD boss Lalu Yadav, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) president Babulal Marandi and even Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi have asserted that Nitish is a PM material.

"The party has neither taken any decision nor passed any resolution to project Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial candidate," he added.

Nitish has lately pitched for a 'Sangh-free' and 'liquor-free' India to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He had recently during a programme at Prime Minister Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi questioned the latter's silence over liquor prohibition and elaborated his pan-India plan.

Nitish has intensified his attack on the BJP-led NDA Government post his splendid win in the Bihar assembly elections and alleged that the ruling dispensation at the Centre has so far miserably failed in fulfilling the promises, including bringing back black money stashed in safe havens abroad, made to the nation.

The Bihar Chief Minister has also been critical of the Prime Minister for using the nationalism plank to hide his failures of addressing the core issues concerning the 'aam aadmi'.