Irked by Chirag Paswan's Barbs, Nitish Kumar Now Faces Uphill Task With Hard Bargainer Fadnavis in Poll Talks

It is typical of Nitish Kumar to become indifferent towards any person or organisation when he is annoyed with them. He will see through the person in public appearances or ignore comments on the organisation he grudges.

Recently, he had shown his indifference towards the BJP by not welcoming the ‘Bhumi Pujan’ of the Ram temple at Ayodhya performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking the beginning of construction of the Ram temple.

His studied silence over the ‘Bhumi Pujan’ has been noticed and has fuelled speculations in political circles but not to the extent of him severing ties with the BJP or NDA.

The stage has not reached when the Janata Dal (U) can think of severing ties with the BJP at this juncture but it is certainly sore over the manner in which another NDA ally – the LJP – is mounting attacks on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

It might be the silence of the BJP leadership over the belligerent attitude and continued attacks of LJP leader Chirag Paswan on the Bihar government over the coronavirus pandemic that have irked Kumar no end.

Chirag Paswan has also ruffled the feelings of the JD(U) leadership by vehemently opposing holding of the state assembly elections in October-November due to the grave situation in Bihar due to the coronavirus pandemic. Not only Chirag Paswan, but his father Ram Vilas Paswan has also irked Kumar by saying that party affairs are handled by Chirag Paswan and he has no say.

But why is the BJP maintaining a silence over Chirag Paswan’s outbursts or is he acting at the behest of BJP itself is the question doing the rounds in the political circles of Bihar.

Senior JD(U) leaders have already said that they are watching the situation closely and trying to find out whether it is BJP-sponsored or Chirag Paswan’s bargaining bait to get more seats in the legislative council nomination under governor’s quota or the seat-sharing for the assembly elections.

While confusion over NDA’s future persists, BJP president JP Nadda met Chirag Paswan on Thursday. It is presumed that the LJP has been assured that its apprehensions would be taken care of in course of seat negotiations.

The LJP, however, is not happy with the assurances of Nadda and is mulling over withdrawing support to the Nitish Kumar government. The LJP has two MLAs and one MLC in the Bihar legislature. Even if the LJP withdraws support, it will have no impact on the government.

The differences between the JD(U) and LJP have widened to the extent that leader of the JD(U) parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, called Chirag ‘Kalidas’, who is known for cutting the branch on which he was sitting.

Retorting to the jibe, LJP leader Ashraf Ansari said Lallan is ‘Surdas’ who has turned a blind eye towards all the ills plaguing Bihar. The LJP has cited the observation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had stressed on the need to increase testing in coronavirus-hit states including Bihar, as an indictment of the Nitish Kumar government over alleged mishandling of the pandemic.

On its part, the BJP has been pursuing its policy of standing on its own throughout the country and in Bihar, it wants to emerge as the biggest party and to ensure win in all the seats it will contest as part of the NDA.

To achieve it, the BJP has recently appointed former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, a hard bargainer, as Bihar in-charge for the assembly elections in addition to Bhupendra Yadav.

For the BJP, 2020 is very different from 2015. It wants to fully exploit the political situation in Bihar as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is in tatters, state Congress is rudderless and handled by hopeless leaders and other Grand Alliance partners are in smithereens.

Moreover, the brand ‘Sushasan Babu’ of Nitish Kumar has considerably eroded of late, especially due to alleged inept handling of the present coronavirus crisis. The opposition, which dubs 'Sushasan' as a golden myth, is trying to paint a negative picture that the Nitish Kumar government has caused this explosive situation of coronavirus due to mishandling of the situation right since the very beginning.

The Nitish government first opposed the entry of migrants and students into Bihar and then allowed them, forcing hundreds and thousands to walk on foot back home. The opposition also blames the government for not creating adequate medical infrastructure to handle the medical emergency.

The recent case of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who hailed from Bihar, has come as handy for the BJP to exploit the ‘Bihari pride’ sentiment in its favour. Fadnavis, who has been tipped as the party's Bihar in-charge, has questioned why the incumbent Maharashtra government did not allow the Bihar police to conduct an inquiry into the case. He had cited the example of UP police which had come to Mumbai to investigate the Vikas Dubey case.

While the senior BJP leaders have announced that the assembly polls would be fought with Nitish Kumar as the leader and the chief ministerial face, the middle-level leaders want the party to look beyond him and work to make the party independent of allies or at least play an equal partner.

With Fadnavis as Bihar in-charge, the state BJP hardliners like Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai, former Union minister Sanjay Paswan, Union minister Giriraj Singh and state BJP president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal may get an opportunity to lobby for an independent line in the party post poll results.

The new breed of hardliners still believe in the dictum of ‘Bihar is not Nitish and Nitish is not Bihar’ as observed in an open letter to the people during the 2015 assembly elections which the JD(U) had contested as partner of the RJD.

Party insiders said that Fadnavis’s choice will prevail in the selection of candidates and also when it comes to deciding the vexed seat-sharing negotiations with the Janata Dal(U) or mediating between the JD(U) and LJP.

The BJP has started its election campaign by identifying ‘key voters’ in every constituency to spread the party's message at the grassroots level. The party has distributed 28-page ‘Mandal Pustikas’ in all the 1,000 Mandals to be filled up with details of the key voters, who can influence the minds of the general voters. There are at least 5 Mandals in one assembly seat and one Mandal as at least 60 booths.