New Delhi : New twist in BJP vs Nitish Kumar cold war. Speculation of change again in Patna! On the one hand, on Sunday evening, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s party JDU announced that there will be no representation from their party in the Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet. Within a few hours, Nitish Kumar called Congress president Sonia Gandhi with a bigger surprise. He also asked for time to meet her. According to political sources, political reshuffle has started again in Bihar. Nitish has called a meeting with all the MLAs of the party tomorrow. Similarly, Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress, the main opposition parties in the state, have separately called their MLAs for the meeting. Nitish’s phone call to Sonia Gandhi and the three-party meeting that followed fueled speculation of a shift in state politics.
Even after getting fewer seats than the BJP in the 2020 assembly polls, Nitish’s re-emergence as the chief minister was causing problems in the East BJP-JDU alliance. In spite of Nitish’s objections, the former national president of JDU, RCP Singh, who was known to be very close to him, became a Union minister. A disgruntled Nitish did not nominate RCP Singh from the Rajya Sabha again. He also hinted to walk the path of investigation on the account of his property. In this situation, RCP attacked Nitish as ‘vindictive’ after leaving the team on Saturday. According to a section of JDU leaders, RCP has made such comments to provoke BJP leaders. Incidentally, within a few hours of RCP Singh’s comments, the national president of JDU and one of the top leaders of the party, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalon, called a press conference and said, “After the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, we decided that we will not join the central government. We stand by that decision. This decision not to join the central government was taken by our party leader Nitish Kumar, who was the party president at that time.”
What could happen in this situation is now speculation. In 2015, Nitish broke the alliance of BJP and joined hands with Lalu Prasad’s party to form the government. Although Lalu’s party had more seats, Lalu gave the chief ministership to ‘old friend’ Nitish. He included his two sons Tejashwi and Teja Pratap as ministers. After two and a half years of that government, Nitish took the hand of BJP again. Also became the chief minister. At that time, RJD leaders called Nitish a ‘traitor’. As a result of the 2020 assembly polls, it was seen that Nitish has dropped to number three after losing a large number of seats in the party! Lalu’s RJD is currently the largest party in the state assembly. Its leader is Tejashwi Yadav. If the number of seats is calculated, Lalu-Nitish and Congress will form the government easily. Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah party will have to oust power in an important state of the Hindi belt. The question arises.
Besides, the question is raised, will the central leaders of BJP accept it? BJP leaders in the state have been ‘upset’ with Nitish for a long time. Leaders of Nitish’s party alleged that the BJP is trying to impose the ideology of the Sangh on the government of Nitish, who is known as ‘secular’ in national politics. Apart from this, the BJP has been ‘bullying’ the state administration with the opportunity to have more seats and more members in the cabinet. That is why Nitish has been seen growing close to Lalu’s son in the past few months, on the one hand to send a message to the BJP. Similarly, the Chief Minister of Bihar has distanced himself from Modi’s party.
In the recent past, Nitish was absent when presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu submitted his nomination. He did not attend the dinner organized in honor of outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind. Nitish was also absent from Draupadi Murmu’s presidential swearing-in ceremony. Earlier in July, Union Home Minister Amit Shah called a meeting of chief ministers, but Nitish sent the deputy chief minister instead of attending it himself. He did not attend the Niti Aayog meeting on Sunday. What will happen this time? All eyes are now on Patna on Tuesday.
Bureau Report
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