U.P. BJP leaders applaud Nitish’s return to the NDA’s fold

BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh said that the 120 parliamentary seats from their State and Bihar together would make sure that the BJP-led NDA will return with a thumping majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday applauded the political developments in neighbouring Bihar, with Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar re-joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

They added that the 120 parliamentary seats from U.P. and Bihar together would make sure that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will return with a thumping majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. “80 from UP, 40 from Bihar, that is, total 120 MPs — it will be ‘Jai Sitaram’ for the Modi government for the third time,” U.P. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said. 

The U.P. Opposition targeted the BJP for allying with the JD(U), saying that the saffron party had never been as weak as it was currently. “The BJP was never as weak during its lifetime as it is today. Today, a new record of betrayal has been made. The public will give a befitting reply to this. There can be no greater defeat than someone not believing in you as a person,” Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav posted on social media platform X.

U.P. Congress chief Ajay Rai dubbed the Bihar CM an opportunist. “I believe it is clear now that Nitish Kumar is an opportunist. People are now aware of this and they would give him a befitting reply,” Mr. Rai said. 

The Kurmi community, an influential Other Backward Classes (OBC) group to which Mr. Kumar belongs, has a sizeable presence in at least eight Lok Sabha and 40 Assembly segments of eastern and central U.P.  When the caste Census was last conducted in 1931, approximately 5% of the population in the State was recorded as Kurmi.