Nitish Kumar vs BJP: The confrontation between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally BJP has reached a massive scale. Taking a jibe at each other since they got together in 2017 is par for the course.
Clear-And-Present-Danger in Bihar Politics
Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) has accused the BJP of two big conspiracies to undermine the chief minister’s hold on his party. The condemnation was issued less than 24 hours ago by Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, who is the president of JDU.
Lalan Singh says that last year, at the time of the general election, the BJP implemented the “chirag model” to ensure that Nitish Kumar’s votes were divided and that led his party to just 43 of the state’s 243 parliamentary seats. Found.
The comments are so scathing that back-channel negotiators will find their workload too heavy. In a reconciliation effort, BJP representatives led by Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad met Vijay Kumar Choudhary, a senior minister and close aide of Nitish Kumar, last evening.
BJP-JD(U) At Dead End?
Sources close to the chief minister say he is in no mood to calm down; tomorrow he will meet with all his MLAs or MLAs to decide what will happen next. Preliminary studies have reportedly convinced him that the legislators are not inclined to face mid-term elections and would prefer a new alliance over the possibility.
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has offered support to Nitish Kumar; the combined strength of his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, Chief Minister’s JDU and Congress is enough to form the government if Nitish Kumar breaks ties with the BJP.
Nitish Kumar calls JD(U) MLAs to Patna
Sources close to him say that his reasons are mainly seen as a concerted attempt by Union Minister Amit Shah to “remote control” Bihar. To register his protest, Nitish Kumar skipped several key meetings called by Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Yesterday was the latest of these boycotts – he did not attend the PM’s meeting with all the chief ministers claiming to be unwell, but was present at two government programs in Patna.
Nitish Kumar calls Congress President Sonia Gandhi
A major role in this crisis belongs to RCP Singh, who quit Nitish Kumar’s party on Saturday evening. He was a Rajya Sabha MP and a Union minister, but Nitish Kumar came to see him as a proxy for Amit Shah, and over the weekend, RCP Singh was accused of rampant corruption by his own party, the JDU. In the preceding months, he was denied an extension of his Rajya Sabha seat, which meant he had to resign as a Union minister.
These are the key demands for Nitish Kumar’s BJP: more central ministry (one was allotted to his party, which was given to RCP Singh) and Bihar elections in 2024, with the next general election (instead of a year later). Will be, in an effort to make good, Amit Shah said in a recent visit to Patna that Nitish Kumar would be the face of his alliance in the next state election; Rejecting that gesture, JD (U)’s Lalan Singh said yesterday that any plans for the next election are undecided.
Read More: Nitish Kumar vs BJP
The BJP and Nitish Kumar formed an alliance for decades until 2013, when the latter opted to team up with the Congress and the RJD (then led by Lalu Yadav and now led by Lalu’s son Tejashwi). However, a major rift broke out between Lalu’s sons, who were ministers, and Nitish Kumar, leading to the termination of the alliance after young leaders were accused of corruption. After this Nitish Kumar aligned his party with the BJP.
At the time, Nitish Kumar also believed that contesting the general election against PM Modi in Bihar would not work in his favor; a similar calculation will now be a big part of his plans – can he afford to fight for Bihar in the general election against the PM, who has a very high approval rating.
Reasons behind Nitish Kumar’s Face-Off With BJP
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called a meeting of all MLAs and MPs of his party Janata Dal (United) on Tuesday, a dirty trick that may signal his anger and a growing confrontation with coalition ally BJP.
Mr. Kumar wants Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha to be removed. The chief minister had lost his cool more than once on Mr. Sinha, whom Mr. Kumar has accused of openly violating the Constitution by raising questions against his government.
Mr Kumar has been troubled since his party JD(U) was offered only one berth in the Narendra Modi government in June 2019. He retaliated by including eight of his party colleagues in the expanded Bihar cabinet and left one vacant for the BJP.
The JD(U) chief is against simultaneous state and national elections. The idea of holding simultaneous elections to the states and Parliament was mooted by PM Modi, which has been strongly opposed by the opposition. This was one of the issues where JD(U) found equal ground with the opposition.
Nitish Kumar vs BJP
Sources said Mr Kumar wants a bigger share in the selection of BJP ministers in his cabinet. Sources said, however, that the move would weaken Home Minister Amit Shah’s alleged hold on Bihar, which is seen as close to him. For example, BJP’s Sushil Modi, who had been Bihar’s deputy chief minister for most of Mr Kumar’s years, was thrown out of Bihar by the party leadership.
Mr Kumar is also angry with the coalition partner over the BJP-led central government’s offer of symbolic representation as Union ministers to allies. Former Union minister RCP Singh, who quit the JD(U) yesterday, had dealt directly with the BJP leadership, bypassing Mr Kumar to become a Union minister. JD(U) national president Rajeev Ranjan (Lalan) Singh said on Sunday, “What is the need to join the Union Cabinet? The Chief Minister had decided in 2019 that we will not be a part of the Union Cabinet.”
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