Nitish's wrath on BJP

As the bitter fallout between the JD(U) and the BJP escalates into a power struggle in the state of Bihar, the latter seems to be uprightly aggressive. While the BJP bristles in fury at the ‘great betrayal’ by the former member of their alliance, it is windfall time too for the JD(U). As many as 18 ministerial portfolios are lying vacant which would be now filled by Kumar’s closest aides or independents that his party is desperate to rope in for its survival. Following the BJP-JD(U) split, Kumar ordered the dismissal of all 11 BJP ministers including his Deputy Prime Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Among other BJP ministers who got sacked include Prem Kumar (Urban Development and Housing), Satyadeo Narayan Arya (Mines and Geology), Nand Kishore Yadav (Road Construction), Chandra Rai (PHED), Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Health), Janardhan Singh Sigriwal (Labour Resources), Giriraj Singh (Animal and Fishery Resources), Sunil Kumar Pinto (Tourism) Sukhada Pandey (Art, Culture and Youth Affairs) and Ramadhar Singh (Cooperative). The state erstlwhile had only 29 ministers as against 36, including the Chief Minister, which were seven short of the maximum.

In the current scenario, Independents hold good chance of becoming ministers or head of boards or corporations. There are six independants so far in the 243 member assembly.Hitherto grossly outnumbered as Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal has merely 22 members, the BJP’s takeover of the Opposition with 91 members will further add to the ruckus in the assembly. On the other hand, Congress counts for four whereas CPI and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJp have one member each.

Interestingly after the split went official, the saffron party released Nitish Kumar’s 2003 speech in which he openly praised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a leader with a future outside the state. This was clearly a desperate move by the BJP to embarrass Nitish Kumar indicating to his sudden ‘secular’ credentials and that he was not always opposed to the saffron strongman. The speech delivered at the inauguration of a railway project was well after the 2002 riots. To quote, he said “I am certain that Narendrabhai will not be confined to Gujarat for long and the country will get the benefit of his services.”

Meanwhile BJP stalwart LK Advani and Leader of Opposition at Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj visualized the end of the alliance as a highly unfortunate incident. However the leaders at Bihar have turned more aggressive. Ejected Deputy CM, Sushil Kumar Modi said on Sunday that the BJP would avenge this ‘Vishwasghaat’ (betrayal). He said “We’ll take revenge of this insult in the Lok Sabha elections next year. We’ll ask people to judge the performances of BJP ministers and compare them with that of the JD(U) ministers. We’ll not spare corrupt ministers.”

In today’s era of shifting goalposts, it would be interesting to see what would be the next move that Nitish Kumar takes. The Congress too is ready to lure the JD(U) with a special package for Bihar in the hope of a probable alliance in future. But Kumar being an Anti-Congress politician since his political beginning will he go ahead and join hands with the Congress? Or is it indeed a political suicide that they’ve committed? Only time seem to have the answers to this complex questions hidden in its womb.