The grand alliance victory has led to signs of a patch-up with the Samajwadi Party, which had walked out of it and contested on its own. The RJD has pledged to strengthen the SP in the Uttar Pradesh polls in 2017. “The Bihar results proved that Laluji has acceptability among the masses. We are going to turn it into a wave against the BJP across the country. It will begin from UP where the RJD will work to strengthen the SP in 2017,” said Ashok Singh, RJD national general secretary and party president in UP. [related-post] Singh said the RJD and other constituents of the grand alliance have high regard for “Netaji” (Mulayam Singh Yadav) and both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar had given this message in their first press conference after the Bihar results. Lalu has already announced he will visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi, UP, next month to “expose the reality” of what change has happened after Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha victory. Besides a tour of Varanasi city and Jayapur, the model village adopted by the PM, Lalu will also address a public meeting there. The Bihar victory has boosted the morale of the RJD unit in UP, where it has been barely visible for the past several years. The RJD had contested four assembly seats in 2012 and lost in all. In Bihar this election, the SP contested 146 seats and failed to win any. Asked whether the RJD will contest in UP again, Ashok Singh said, “To remove the arrogant BJP from power, it is necessary that our votes are not divided. It is not necessary that the RJD contests in UP but it will certainly strengthen the SP.”
