Don’t take Lalu-Nitish alliance lightly: Shatrughan Sinha

Patna: BJP parliamentarian Shatrughan Sinha on Sunday cautioned his party not to treat lightly the coming together of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad ahead of the state assembly polls.
The note of caution from the actor-politician comes after party-led NDA won 12 of 24 legislative council seats two days ago. An independent backed by the BJP won yet another seat.

The grand alliance of Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party won 10 seats. Another seat was bagged by an Independent close to the RJD.

Sinha said the Lalu-Nitish alliance was "strong" as both have their respective social support bases on the ground.

"The BJP should not treat the Lalu-Nitish combine lightly and chalk out a strategy to counter them in the coming polls," he said.

"Bihar Legislative Council polls are not general elections and its result have not gone in favour of any one. There is no need for the BJP to beat the drums and celebrate; instead, the party should give special attention to the legislative assembly polls (to be held in September/October)," Sinha told media here.

The BJP parliamentarian from Patna Sahib has made his views public at a time when BJP senior leaders are upbeat over legislative council election result and confident that they would repeat the performance in the assembly polls too.

"The results reflect the general mood in the state," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.

Sinha was also not sure whether he would campaign in the upcoming assembly polls as a BJP star campaigner, as in the past. "Till date, I have not been asked for it," he said.

Last month, Sinha said it would be better if the BJP parliamentary board named a general who would lead the troops in the coming elections.

Sinha, who joined the BJP in 1984 when the saffron party had only two MPs, is said to be unhappy over being sidelined in the party after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.