Several leaders of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Janata Dal (United) on Saturday met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and urged him to contest the coming Lok Sabha election from Phulpur or Varanasi. They requested Mr. Kumar to campaign for at least three months, saying he was a suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
There are about 20% of Kurmi people in Phulpur, the caste that Mr. Kumar belongs to, the Uttar Pradesh unit of the JD(U) says. In Uttar Pradesh they go with the surname Patel. Two former Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and V.P. Singh, were elected from this Lok Sabha seat. At present, the BJP’s Keshari Devi Patel has been elected to Parliament from here. Nine Kurmi MPs have so far represented this constituency. At present, Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal (Sonelal), who is with the BJP and the Union Minister, has the maximum support of this OBC segment in Phulpur. Along with the Kurmis, Muslims and Yadavs will also play a major role in the balance.
This is not the first time that this demand has been made. However, Mr. Kumar has never made any statement on this. On July 30 too, JD(U) workers in Jaunpur had demanded that Mr. Kumar contest elections from Uttar Pradesh. On Saturday, he accepted the request letter of JD(U) workers who reached Patna.
The JD(U) has also conducted surveys on some seats in Uttar Pradesh where Shravan Kumar, a Minister close to Mr. Kumar who comes from his home district Nalanda is the in-charge. Uttar Pradesh JD(U) State unit president Satyendra Patel said there were a dozen Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh from where Mr. Kumar could win if he chose to contest.
“There are many Lok Sabha seats like Phulpur, Mirzapur, Ambedkar Nagar, and Varanasi from where Nitish Kumar ji will win. We want him to contest elections from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Nitish ji contests elections from Varanasi, Mr. Modi will not file a nomination from that seat, because as a candidate of the INDIA alliance, he will get the support of all the political parties,“ Mr. Patel said.
Mr. Kumar has not contested parliamentary elections for almost 20 years. The last time he won the Lok Sabha election was in 2004, from Nalanda.
Awlesh Kumar Singh, vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh unit, said, “We have requested him to campaign for at least three months so that we can wipe out the BJP from there. He is a suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister who has established good governance in Bihar and is making all efforts to unite the Opposition. History proves that whenever anyone has contested from Phulpur, they have become the Prime Minister of the country.”
