New Delhi: NCP leader Tariq Anwar today attacked the RJD, JD(U) and Congress, charging that their ‘secular alliance’ does not want Muslim faces and they have always ‘suppressed’ Muslims leaders.
NCP is in talks with its state leaders and workers regarding seat-sharing for Bihar polls and will come to a conclusion after August 18, Anwar, NCP general secretary and Lok Sabha MP from Katihar constituency, said.
Attacking the ‘secular alliance’ of RJD, JD(U) and Congress, Anwar charged, “They do not want Muslim faces. They have not let Muslim leaders progress in their party and have suppressed them. They have used the Muslim leaders but did not give them share in political power.”
“These parties feel that because of BJP, they will get the Muslim votes. They are confident of their Muslim vote bank.
“They neither want Muslim faces nor Dalits. That is the way they think and it is absolutely wrong,” Anwar said.
Rejecting the seat-share given to NCP, Anwar said that it was unacceptable to them and they were holding internal meetings to come to a conclusion post August 18.
“The seat-sharing was a one-sided decision. We were not consulted for it. Initially they said that they will hold talks for seat division but later they decided themselves and we were sidelined,” Anwar alleged.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced the electoral pact at a press conference on Wednesday allocating 100 seats each to RJD and JDU, 40 seats to the Congress and 3 to NCP.
Anwar said that for Lok Sabha elections, they were in an alliance with RJD and Congress. While NCP was given one seat, RJD was given 27 and Congress 12.
“Even then we won the single seat given to us whereas RJD could win only 4 out 27 seats and Congress only got 2. In this scenario, we are expecting at least 12 legislative seats from the alliance,” he said.
The NCP general secretary said that suspended RJD leader, Pappu Yadav had contacted him for negotiations in election, but he has not taken a decision yet.
“Pappu Yadav had proposed that if we fight together in poll-bound Bihar, we can get some strength there. But I told him that I will not come to any conclusion before talking to other NCP members,” NCP leader said.
When asked if he spoke to either Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav after the electoral pact was announced, Anwar said that neither they have tried to contact NCP since then nor has NCP initiated any talks so far.
“If talks are initiated, we will definitely talk. We have still kept our options open. We are also in talks with the Left parties,” he said.