NCP plans 'Third' option in Bihar with Left parties

New Delhi, Aug 23: Shocked over the short shrift by the 'grand alliance', NCP leader Tariq Anwar has plans to stitch up a 'Third' option in poll-bound Bihar by seeking to join hands with Left parties.

Anwar, who has held preliminary talks with some Left leaders, said that if the alliance with these parties materialises, it would be a credible tie-up at a time when the state is witnessing a tussle between communal forces and "opportunist" forces.

The former Union minister said that he also has plans to take along small regional parties in his grouping whose "enemy number one" will be BJP. Replying to a question, he dismissed suggestions that Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM would not have any impact in the state which has sizable Muslim population.

"He can make a dent. When there is communal Muslim leadership, it is bound to have an impact". Bihar has some 18 per cent Muslim population, a majority of which had remained with Lalu Prasad's RJD which has been boasting the backing of MY (Muslim+Yadav) combination.

A section of Muslims has also sided with Nitish Kumar. Anwar said that the election is "not an easy one" for the grand alliance headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar given the fact that he was carrying a "10-year-long anti-incumbency".

Hurt over being ignored by the Nitish led-alliance, Anwar said that "The decision of JD-U-RJD to give just three seats to the NCP came as a bolt from the blue for me."

He said that the action by Kumar and Lalu would bring division in the secular vote as people who would be denied tickets by the grand alliance as also the BJP could rally round such a 'Third option'. Anwar claimed the signal the 'grand alliance' has given by keeping him and his party out of it was that they are against projection of Muslim leadership.

"For long, they have been telling me that the NCP and I are part and parcel of the grand alliance and suddenly this thing happened without any consultation with us... It is political dishonesty," Anwar, who is among the founders of the Sharad Pawar-led party, said.

He alleged that the seat sharing arrangement in the 'grand alliance' was done "without any criteria". He claimed that his party should have got as many as 27 of the total 243 seats allocated given the fact that the parties in the alliance had totally got nine seats in the Lok Sabha polls including one by his party.

Asked whether there have been any reaching out by JD-U- RJD after it rejected three seats offered by them, he said, "We feel that they (Lalu-Nitish) don't need NCP and people like us, they didn't even feel the need to talk to us".

PTI