Backed Nitish to keep BJP at bay: Cong

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The Congress is moving closer to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar after backing him in the trust vote during the day with a calculation that his JD(U) will not oppose the key bills in Parliament.
The growing proximity between the two will not make the floor managers to rely on the Samajwadi Party (22 members in the Lok Sabha). This is because the JD(U) has 20 members in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress is in no hurry to ally with Mr Kumar’s JD(U) in Bihar in the coming Lok Sabha elections for the simple reason that it wants to keep the RJD, LJP and the JD(U) in good humour and to ensure that they will not support the BJP in the post-poll situation.
“If we have been managing support of the SP and the BSP at the Centre since 2004 why not this experiment extends to Bihar,” a Congress leader said.
The JD(U), RJD, LJP can get upper caste votes in Bihar through the Congress while the BJP cannot get numbers only on the upper caste votes, they pointed out.
The BJP is going back to its Jan Sangh days after its isolation at the national level.
But the Congress on Wednesday said that it backed Mr Kumar in the trust vote to thwart the design of communal forces but refused to term the move as a “prelude to any future alliance”.
Party spokesman P.C. Chacko told mediapersons, “We have supported the Nitish Kumar government in view of the BJP’s desire to pull it down... To thwart the communal forces... It is not a prelude to a future alliance.”
Replying to a volley of questions on the Congress support to the Nitish government and whether it meant the JD(U) will reciprocate it at the Centre, he said, “This is without any condition... We do not expect anything in return. There is no quid pro quo. There is no deal.”
He said that the party high command will decide the issue of alliance with the JD(U) at an appropriate time. “I am not going to predict what is going to happen tomorrow.”
To a query, Mr Chacko said that no one on behalf of Mr Kumar had approached the Congress for the support and it was a “unilateral” action on the part of the Congress.
He also indicated that the Congress’ support was more to do with Mr Kumar than his party.
“We endorse the Prime Minister’s statement that Nitish Kumar is a secular person. Beyond that if you ask about JD(U), the party has not decided anything. The party has not discussed about political alliances. We have not come to any conclusion about political alliances in any state.”
Asked whether the action will mean that Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, which had voted against the Nitish government was a “communal” party, Mr Chacko said, “Every political party has its own right to take a decision on whom to support and whom to oppose.”
Responding to a questions, Mr Chacko also said Sudheendra Kulkarni is “very right” in saying that Mr Narendra Modi is “autocrat”.