A palpable warmth between the JD-U headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP in the aftermath of elections to five states where the saffron party emerged as the “giant killer” has led to fresh tension in the ruling alliance.
Even as both RJD and the Congress are shocked after poor show of the secular groups in the elections, the JD-U has been caught mixing with the celebrating BJP people. Especially, the RJD camp led by Lalu Prasad is distressed at the way the chief minister congratulated the BJP for its spectacular victory in UP and Uttarakand and then his party leaders joined the BJP leaders to celebrate Holi this time even as the RJD chief himself didn’t join the colour celebration.
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The prevailing tension took a new turn when the Union minister of state for rural development Ram Kripal Yadav visited the residence of former JD-U minister Shyam Rajak and party’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh on Monday and celebrated Holi together. The RJD was quick to warn JD-U, its alliance partner, for its “teasing” act saying none should take the party for granted.
“We are aware about the “khichadi” cooking between them and are keeping a close watch on who are meeting whom. None should take the RJD for granted. The RJD with 80 legislators is the single largest party in the Bihar assembly and none should think it as weak,” warmed senior RJD legislator Bhai Birendra, considered close to the RJD president.
He said the Bihar mandate is such that the RJD had the compulsion to stay together with the JD-U. “Laluji is quite aware of the ongoing development and will be deciding on the future course of action soon,” said Mr Birendra.
The RJD is also aggrieved at the way the chief minister remained “neutral” during the UP elections and didn’t campaign for the SP-Congress alliance despite his party being part of the secular alliance in Bihar. But, what hurt the RJD the most was his move to congratulate the BJP through the social networking site, Twiter.
“Congratulations to the BJP for such a spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. So far as the result of UP elections is concerned, the backward class people hugely supported the BJP while the non-BJP parties didn’t make efforts to bring with them. Also, no grand alliance took shape in UP on the pattern of Bihar. Further, they didn’t require to oppose the demonetisation drive so strongly since it had brought a sense of satisfaction on the poor who thought the move had harmed only the rich. But many parties ignored this point,” Bihar chief minister tweeted, soon after the results came in.
Experts say the tweet came as rubbing salts to the wounds of both RJD-Congress and indirectly intended to hit them from the front. The JD-U was peeved at the way it was kept out of the alliance formed to take on BJP in the UP polls, eventually forcing it to opt out of the contest midway through the polls. Very soon, the JD-U leadership sacked its UP unit chief after he was caught campaigning in favour of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
“Nitish Kumar didn’t fulfill the coalition dharma by openly supporting the demonetization drive. It looked like the match was fixed between Nitish and the BJP. Much before the elections were announced, Nitish held many rallies in UP but suddenly withdrew from the contest when the poll dates were announced. Nitish didn’t speak a word against the BJP. He never showed that he was with the grand alliance,” alleged RJD vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.
In a curious twist to the overall drama, the BJP has accused the RJD of humiliating the chief minister. “The way he is undergoing political torture at the hands of the RJD, it looks like Nitish Kumar will not be able to face it for too long,” remarked former BJP president Mangal Pandey, indicating another bout of bon homie between the Bihar CM and the BJP.
The Bihar chief minister has gone out of the way supporting the surgical strike and demonetization drive of the Narendra Modi government at the centre even as both his alliance partners, Congress and the RJD, have been strongly opposing it on the street. Further, Mr Kumar has also been caught sharing cool moments with his arch-rival, Mr Modi more than once in recent days.
