What is brewing in Bihar politics?
In the official meeting of JD(U) MLAs and MPs, it has been decided that the JD(U) will break their ties with BJP. Meanwhile JD(U) leader Upendra Kushwaha’s tweet “ Congratulate NItish Kumar being answerable for a new alliance in a new form. NItish ji, march ahead! The country waits for you” confirms the new alliance with Mahagadbadhan.
This should not come as a surprise given the mercurial nature of Nitish Kumar. This has also come at a time when Lalu Yadav and his daughter Misa Bharti have been raided by CBI for ‘land-for-job’ scam. RJD despite being the single biggest party with 75 seats is set to embrace Nitish as the leader of their coalition and Congress has been said to be the one in the mid of it.
Meanwhile, Nitish is meeting the governor at 4 pm today to hand in his resignation. Truth be told, the JD(U)-BJP relations have not been going well for quite some time and this has been known for a while. This has become increasingly visible with recent developments, especially with CM Nitish Kumar, the face of the BJP-JD(U) coalition, missing back-to-back four central events since July 17.
The Chief Minister of Bihar skipped Niti Aayog’s meeting on account of recently recovering from Covid and avoiding travel as a precaution. Although the CM attended a ‘National Handloom Day’ function in Patna on 7th August and had Janata Darbar on 8th August.
While he skipped President Droupadi Murmu’s swearing-in and former President Ram Nath Kovind’s farewell dinner, hosted by PM Modi, the JD(U) chief Lalan Singh has said, “ We supported the NDA president, vice president nominees”. He also stayed away from the meeting of CMs organized by Amit Shah.
In his address to the press, JD(U) president Lalan Singh claimed “two conspiracies” against Nitish Kumar. First is the Chirag Model of 2020, where the LJP president Chirag Paswan fielded candidates from places JD(U)’s candidates were contesting. To add to the power struggle, these candidates were none other than BJP’s big leaders, most of which left LJP and went to BJP again.
This has been said as a reason for Nitish’s party's loss of seats from 71 to 43. While the JD(U) chief didn't specifically mention BJP, he said he will speak about it at the right time and that everyone knows about it. Following this, Chirag Paswan hit back at the party by saying that the CM will not be able to complete his 5-year term.
The second conspiracy Lalan Singh admitted was about RCP Singh, who has exited the party after it accused him of buying 47 land plots in Nalanda in his family member’s name. Although the crux of the matter lies with Nitish’s close aid and No.2 in the party accepting a ministerial berth in the center without Nitish’s go-ahead.
While Amit Shah in Patna said that BJP and JDU will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Assembly elections together, on the other hand, Lalan Singh made a comment saying that nothing can be said about what happens tomorrow. This has now come out to be true with Nitish switching the sides again.
Bihar politics is set to see another crisis. How it pans out is something to look out for as the earlier gadbandhan with RJD didn’t go well. Nitish has had many allies but what has been a constant for him is his incessant need to be the one in the driving seat.
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