Nitish’s MLAs may impede BJP’s plans to break Bihar alliance

The success of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid in Bihar to wean Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] away from the grand alliance depends on Nitish Kumar’s ability to keep his flock of party MLAs together.

This is not an easy task, since quite a few JD(U) MLAs may find the prospects of their re-election bleak in case their party goes to polls for the next Assembly polls in alliance with or under any arrangement that can be seen as friendly to the BJP by the electorate.

Many of the JD(U) MLAs had won the polls because Muslims and Yadavs had voted for them overwhelmingly and these sections may well turn out to be averse to the legislators’ re-election in case JD(U) changes track midway through its current term in the Vidhan Sabha and adds to already intense polarisation of political forces.

This is the main reason behind the divided view in JD(U) vis-à-vis accepting BJP’s open offer of support and severing ties with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD in the wake of his son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav coming under the scanner for alleged corruption. Pointing this out, those familiar with Bihar politics argue that the choice before Nitish is far from being an easy one.

And thus, Nitish’s staunch supporters in the party like KC Tyagi have appealed not only to allies like RJD and Congress but also to former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav to rally behind the Chief Minister in case the crisis dogging the state comes to a tether.

Tyagi’s plea for keeping Nitish’s clean image unscathed without actually mentioning the tar of corruption hurled at Lalu’s children is countered by a section of the party leaders by questioning the support offered by Nitish to BJP presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who had openly backed former BJP president Bangaru Laxman in the wake of Tehelka’s expose in March 2001 of him receiving cash on camera.

Though two wrongs don’t make a right, the fact is that Kovind has been a seasoned lawyer and public figure who opted for lending his support to Bangaru Laxman when the former BJP chief found himself in the dock and Tejashwi is still a rookie despite his high position in Bihar politics. Yet, he is being dragged into a muddle that as per his claims dates back to a time when he was a minor and yet to learn the ropes of the tricky business called politics.

Caught up amid such dilemmas, the JD(U) higher ups are busy trying to find a way out of the Bihar crisis and thinking of ways to save the Mahagathbandhan, or the grand alliance, from the BJP’s onslaught. Amid pulls and pressures faced by them, a section of party leaders points to a statement issued by it last month. This questions Nitish Kumar’s high moral ground despite the fact that they had pointed out what they call “irregularities” in Nitish’s election as JD(U) president in April last year and its endorsement in October 2016 at the party’s National council meeting held at Rajgir in Bihar in October 2016.

These leaders are JD(U) state presidents of Madhya Pradesh, Govind Yadav, and his West Bengal, Delhi and Uttarakhand counterparts, Amitabh Datt, Thakur Balbir Singh and Pramod Sharma. All these leaders had approached the Election Commission questioning the way Nitish became JD(U) president violating the provisions of the party’s constitution, particularly those related to election in all the state units of the party before electing president for its central unit and appointment of an electoral officer for this. And the Election Commission had ordered in May this year asking JD(U) to sort out issues involved in the election of its party president.

Govind Yadav and his cohorts had held a press conference in Delhi besides moving the Election Commission. Today, these leaders remind of the inadequacies of the high standards that Tyagi and Nitsh are trying to appeal to, amid pressure coming from outside the ranks of the party.