United GA to oust NDA, says Dipankar

Patna: CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Thursday said the strongly united seven-party Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar was firmly on course to defeat the BJP in the Nov assembly elections.

He said the alliance aimed not only to transform the state but also to fulfil the national expectation of defeating the BJP’s “hate agenda.”Bhattacharya, who was speaking at the first joint press conference of the alliance after the announcement of its seat-sharing arrangement, said the alliance was “seamlessly united” in its mission to oust the NDA govt in Bihar.Bhattacharya added that this election carried both state and national significance.

“People in the country are worried and the doubt among them is whether the BJP will repeat in Bihar what it did in Maharashtra with Eknath Shinde — accepting him as leader of the campaign and then removing him after the elections,” he said.“Their worry is also if democracy and the Constitution will continue to remain in danger, or if the people of Bihar, like those of Jharkhand last year, will reject the BJP’s hate agenda and its lie of ‘ghoospaithiya (infiltrators)’ and forge ahead,” he added.

“We want to assure them on behalf of the grand alliance that Bihar is completely ready to protect democracy, the Constitution, national unity and integrity, as well as the ‘Ganga-Jamuni tehjeeb,’” Bhattacharya said. He added that the alliance’s twin slogans were “badlo sarkar, badlo Bihar” and “vote chor, gaddi chhod (no more vote thievery, quit the throne).”Recalling 2020, Bhattacharya said, “That election, held amid the coronavirus pandemic, was narrowly lost. The people of Bihar have since been waiting for a stronger opposition.” He said the alliance had now expanded from five parties in 2020 to seven, and accused the govt of pushing people into debt, neglecting youth and the poor, and failing to provide education, housing and healthcare.