Bihar: Amit Shah pacifying Nitish does not go down well with Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha

Amit Shah’s trip to Patna and meeting with Nitish Kumar, instead of easing the problems within the NDA in Bihar, has further aggravated the same

PTI Photo
PTI Photo
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Soroor Ahmed

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah’s attempt to keep Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in good humour has not gone down well with other National Democratic Alliance constituents in the state –– the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Rashtriya Lok Samat Party (RLSP).

Their leaders are now asking as to why none from these two parties were either invited by Shah to the breakfast at the state guest house in Patna on July 12 and the dinner at the Chief Minister’s bungalow the same night. The breakfast was hosted by Shah.

The LJP and RLSP leaders had their points. They are of the view that while they stood solidly behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and helped him come to power, the BJP president had come all the way to meet Nitish in Patna when the latter was not at all a reliable and trustworthy partner. Not only that, the 2014 poll exposed how strong Janata Dal (United) actually was when it could win only two seats out of 38 it contested. It left the rest two for its alliance partner, the CPI, which actually drew a blank.

The working president of RLSP, Nagmani, was upset at so much importance being given to Nitish when he, according to him, has only 1.5 per cent votes. RLSP national president and Union minister of state for human resources development Upendra Kushwaha said that the seat-sharing arrangements can be made only when the leaders of all four constituents of the NDA sit down and sort out the matter.

The LJP and RLSP leaders got somewhat alarmed following the news that the BJP has privately agreed to leave at least one more seat for Janata Dal (United) than the saffron party itself. The most likely formula is that of 16 for JD(U) and 15 for BJP while the LJP and RLSP will be left with six and three seats respectively.

LJP won six of the seven seats it contested in 2014 while RLSP all the three in which it fielded its candidates. In contrast, the BJP could win only 22 out of the 30 it fought. That way, the success rates of the two alliance partners were much higher than even the BJP.

When Nagmani referred to 1.5 per cent votes, he was talking about the caste percentage of Kurmis, the caste to which Nitish Kumar belongs.

No doubt Amit Shah had, in the past, met LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and RLSP leader Updndra Kushwaha in New Delhi but they were low profile meetings with hardly any media attention. Contrary to that. the Nitish-Shah talks got huge media coverage.

The LJP and RLSP leaders got somewhat alarmed following the news that the BJP has privately agreed to leave at least one more seat for Janata Dal (United) than the saffron party itself. The most likely formula is that of 16 for JD(U) and 15 for BJP while the LJP and RLSP will be left with six and three seats respectively.

Curiously, while Nitish Kumar has, of late, been, assiduously courting LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, the latter’s son and MP Chirag Paswan had, a few days before Amit Shah’s visit to Bihar, sprung a surprise when he praised the young Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly and RJD leader.

Many political pundits are of the view that Nitish wants Kushwaha to be pushed out of the NDA in the same way he got rid of former Chief Minister and leader of Hindustani Awam Morcha, Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The Bihar Chief Minister knows that the RLSP leader would continue to pose problems for him in the future. However, Nitish would, on his own, not like to lose Ram Vilas Paswan.

But Chirag’s reported soft corner for Tejashwi has its own significance.

It needs to be mentioned that in 2014, it was Chirag who virtually dragged his father towards the BJP. Ram Vilas joined NDA in the last week of February 2014, just four days before the launch of Narendra Modi’s campaign in Bihar on March 3.

Before that day, Ram Vilas Paswan was busy in talks with the RJD and the Congress. Today, it is a totally different story. Chirag may compel his father to jump off the Narendra Modi bandwagon on the eve of the election as he is sensing that the NDA is a sinking ship.

Amit Shah’s trip to Patna, instead of easing the problem, has further complicated it.

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