Nitish, Mamata

Patna, March 17: The Janata Dal (United) will have no electoral truck in Bengal with its Bihar alliance partner, the BJP.

Top sources in the JD (U) revealed that the party will not tie up with the BJP in Bengal and will instead back Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, who is trying to dislodge the 34-year-old Left Front regime in the neighbouring state.

The Bengal unit of the JD (U) confirmed the decision. “We have adopted a resolution saying we have no alliance with the BJP and there is no NDA in Bengal. The JD (U) has been an integral part of didi’s (Mamata Banerjee’s) struggle against the CPM for the last 10 years,” Bengal JD (U) chief Amitabha Dutta told The Telegraph over phone.

Dutta said his party has given a list of 10 Assembly seats it wishes to contest in alliance with Trinamul to Mamata’s office. When pointed out that Mamata has already ruled out any alliance with the NDA in Bengal, Dutta asked, “Where is the NDA in Bengal? We are a political entity totally separate from the BJP here and we have actively supported didi in her campaign against the CPM in Nandigram and Singur.”

Nitish, who won a second term in office in Bihar in alliance with the BJP last year, prefers not to explicitly speak on the nitty-gritty of seat sharing with Mamata, an ally of the BJP’s prime rival, the Congress, in national politics. However, he predicted an end of the Left run.

“The writing on the wall is clear. The Left is on its way out in Bengal. Mamata is all set to win the polls. People are bored with the protracted rule of the Left,” said the chief minister, who has also held the railway portfolio, which is now with Mamata.

Recently, the lone RJD MLA in Bengal, Mohammad Sohrab, crossed over to the JD (U) in anticipation of a ticket. Sohrab had won from Burrabazar (a major business centre in Calcutta) in alliance with the CPM in the 2006 elections.

The Burrabazar Assembly segment no longer exists post-delimitation, the major part of the constituency now part of the Chowringhee seat. The RJD has already fielded a candidate, Bimal Singh, from Chowringhee.

Recalling the JD (U)’s association with Trinamul, Dutta said: “The JD (U) and Trinamul had contested in alliance in 2006 too. The JD (U) had then contested Howrah South and Ukhra seats in Burdwan district in alliance with Trinamul.” Dutta himself contested from Howrah South and lost to the CPM.

“Though we have given a list of 10 seats where we have cadres operating for over a decade, we have a genuine claim over two seats which Trinamul had spared for us in the previous polls,” Dutta said. “We are sure didi will spare a reasonable number of seats to us.”

Sources close to Nitish, however, revealed that the Bihar chief minister would not create any hurdle in the way of Mamata taking on the Left in Bengal. “Nitish shares a strong rapport with Mamata. He looks for a long-term investment in the rise of Mamata in Bengal,” a top source said.

Nitish has been maintaining an amicable relationship with Mamata for over six years. “You will win the elections with a more resounding margin than me,” Nitish told Mamata when the Trinamul leader had called him to congratulate on his landslide victory in the Assembly elections last year.

Moreover, Nitish still attacks RJD leader Lalu Prasad on the issue of the railways, sparing Mamata.

He repeatedly blames Lalu Prasad for the delay in completion of the railway engine factories in Marhaura and Madhepura and other pending projects. Nitish was not critical of Mamata even when she allegedly refused to meet his demand of 10 more trains for Bihar during the last railway budget.

BJP leaders in Patna refused to speak on the issue. “Nitish is the high command of his party. But we have our high command at Delhi which can speak on the issue. We are not supposed to speak on Bengal,” said a BJP leader.

It is not unusual for the JD (U) to shun the BJP’s company outside Bihar. Nitish had fielded his party’s candidates in Gujarat and went to campaign for them in the state, even attacking the BJP chief minister Narendra Modi.