Mayawati not ready to be Nitish Kumar’s cheerleader for 2019

Opposition party is trying to show case Nitish Kumar’s swearing in as Bihar chief minister for the fifth term in Patna as the Precursor of grand informal unity of anti-BJP forces,

The most famous Dalit leader of the country and former UP chief Minister Mayawati will not be sending any representative from her party BSP.

“Is it necessary to send someone? We are not sending anyone to Patna as BSP delegate,” BSP Rajya Sabha MP Ambeth Rajan confirmed to ET on the eve of Nitish’ swearing in tomorrow.

Such is the fervency of anti-BJP forces to rally with Nitish that West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and her political rival CPM chief Sitaram Yechury will be present on the occasion tomorrow in Patna.

So much so that Shiv Sena, which is engaged in a Struggle with its alliance partner BJP, has confirmed its attendance at the ceremony tomorrow.

However, BSP seems worriless by this frenzy in opposition ranks to be seen with Nitish and decided to skip the ceremony tomorrow.

In contrast, Samajwadi Party, which is BSP’s political rival in Uttar Pradesh, will be represented by UP chief minister AKhilesh Yadav himself despite having campaigned against Nitish during elections.

Even RLD chief Ajit Singh, who holds influence in a pocket of UP, will be present on Nitish’ swearing in despite his political bitterness with SP.

Mayawati’s absence, consequently, is another confirmation of BSP’s reluctance to hypothesis grand-alliance against BJP in UP.

A section of opposition is seeking to project Nitish as a gladiator who stalled Narendra Modi juggernaut and consequently using his swearing in ceremony in Patna to cheer his emerge as a potential national alternative.

Consequently, the gathering of non-BJP leaders at Patna is aimed to signal concentricity of political forces whose electoral support bases are distinct from that of BJP.

Absence of Mayawati, who is arguably the biggest Dalit mass leader across the country or BSP representative in Patna will puncture the claims of concentricity of non-BJP forces. More so when she remains a formidable electoral force in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.

JDU, however, played it down saying that not much should be read from BSP skipping the function. “We are not against BSP. Even our alliance in UP is not final. There is no ill-will from our side.

She is a political forces and have a vital role,” KC Tyagi, JDU leader told ET playing down her absence from the opposition jamboree.