Vikasshil Insaan Party president Mukesh Sahni with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and RLSP leader Upendra Kushwaha in Patna. (PTI)EBC leader and head of Vikasshil Insaan Party (VIP) Mukesh Sahni, also known as ‘son of Mallah’, joined the RJD-led Grand Alliance on Sunday.
The RJD-led Grand Alliance in Bihar now has the Congress, RLSP, and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (S), apart from Sahni’s party.
RJD Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said: “Sahni joining us has further strengthened our alliance. As I have already said, our alliance is that of the hearts of people of Bihar.”
Sahni enjoys support of EBC Mallah, who constitute about 8 per cent of the Bihar population and have surnames like Sahni, Kevat and Nishad.
Calling the Grand Alliance a “formidable force”, Tejashwi said, “The fact that JD(U), which had won two (Lok Sabha) seats, forced you to give it 17 seats to contest… LJP and JD(U) benefitted from asking questions on the note ban. The BJP, which has 22 MPs, is now forced to contest 17 seats and JD(U) that had won two seats would contest 17 seats. It shows how the NDA has weakened.”
RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha took a dig at how LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan had got the BJP to assure him a Rajya Sabha berth. “Paswan perhaps knows the NDA may not be able to open its accounts in Bihar,” he said.
Manjhi went on to say that the UPA would win and Congress president Rahul Gandhi would become the next prime minister.
