'Like oil and water': Raghubar Das on talks of Oppn alliance for Lok Sabha polls

Taking a jibe at opposition parties' attempt to form a 'grand alliance' against the BJP, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das Monday said it was like mixing "oil and water".

Interacting with mediapersons at his residence here, he also ruled out early dissolution of the Jharkhand assembly to hold the state election along with that for Lok Sabha, and said "one-nation-one-election" is not possible without a constitutional amendment.

While his party BJP has been strongly advocating for simultaneous polls as an idea to be explored, the Opposition has been saying it was against the federal structure.

Das also said Naxalism was nearing its end in Jharkhand and alleged there are certain anti-national forces that were trying to prevent the state from developing as they felt poverty would facilitate religious conversion.

The chief minister said opposition parties have been rattled by the support Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received from the people and that has forced them to come together.

However, these parties are not compatible and even if they come together it will not be spontaneous and homogenous, according to the chief minister.

"Tel aur pani kabhi mil sakta hai? (Can oil and water ever mix)?" he asked.

"Tel aur pani milenge toh, na tel hi rahega na pani (When oil and water mix, both will lose their identities)," he added.

"So we are not concerned about any 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance). Our party's focus is on how to make it even stronger. Because we have got a leadership which people trust," Das said.

He also called the Congress a party of days gone by. "The Congress era has ended and the BJP era has begun."
"The anti-national forces and the Maoists have just one aim and that is to scuttle the development of the state. They mislead the people into protesting. This is what my experience of three-and-half years tells me."