A sudden political reversal in Manipur has become the latest flashpoint between former allies BJP and JD(U). The loss of 5 MLAs in Manipur and disparaging jabs from the saffron party foreshadowing the JD(U)’s collapse has prodded the Nitish Kumar-led party to go on the offensive and vow to uproot the BJP in the 2024 elections.
THE TRIGGER
The JD(U) suffered a massive setback on Friday when five of its six MLAs joined hands with the ruling BJP in Manipur on Friday.
The setback came just a day ahead of the crucial national executive meeting in Patna on Saturday. All the legislators were supposed to reach Patna to participate in the national executive meeting of JDU but switched sides prior to that.
Janata Dal-United legislators who have joined BJP are namely- Khumukcham Singh, Ngursanglur Sanate, Achab Uddin, Thangjam Arun Kumar and LM Khaute.
The Manipur Legislative Assembly Speaker has accepted the merger of Janata Dal-United legislators with the BJP.
This is the second blow for Nitish Kumar’s party in the last nine days. On August 25, the lone JDU MLA, Teki Kaso in Arunachal Pradesh, joined the BJP in the presence of party national president JP Nadda.
BJP MOCKS JD(U)
Soon after the induction of the Manipur JD(U) MLAs into the BJP, MP Sushil Modi took a swipe at Nitish Kumar, saying states like Manipur and Arunachal have become “JD(U)-mukt”.
“Very soon Laluji will make Bihar also JD(U) free,” Sushil Modi jibed.
JDU JDU @ANI @ABPNews @News18India @News18Bihar @ZeeBiharNews
— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) September 2, 2022
JD(U) FIRES BACK
Asking Sushil Modi not to “daydream”, JD(U) national President Rajiv Ranjan aka Lalan Singh said the BJP will be decimated in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In a series of tweets, Lalan Singh accused the saffron party of not adhering to coalition “dharma” in Arunachal Pradesh and said the developments in Manipur had exposed the ruling party. He also asserted that the BJP cannot stop the JD(U) from becoming a force to be reckoned with at the national level.
“In 2024, the country will become ‘Jumlebaaz Mukt’,” he said, in an oblique dig at PM Modi.
JD(U) spokesperson and former minister Neeraj Kumar also lashed out at the BJP for using money power to get JD(U) lawmakers to cross over.
“This is the character of the BJP, of backstabbing alliance partners. First, they engineered the defection of seven of our legislators in Arunachal Pradesh and now five legislators in Manipur. We have won elections in these states on our own. This is the new character of the BJP, which does not want other small parties to grow. People of the country are seeing everything and Janata Dal-United will finish BJP in 2024,