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JD(U) insisted that these were routine meetings, where the party chairman and chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, took the heat at the grassroots level of the state, talking to his MPs, MLAs and MLCs.
However, as these came in the middle of the first opposition unity meeting in Patna, where Nitish played an important role, and the next scheduled in Bengaluru later this month, speculation has been rife about the discussions the PM is having with his leaders. over four days, until Monday.
After Maharashtra developed, leaving the NCP bruised, leaders in the rival camps suggested that the meetings were Nitish’s way of ensuring there were no weak links on the JD(U) front. He is an astute politician, and he predicts that the BJP will put pressure on the opposition parties after the Patna unity meeting, and given Nitish’s role in it, the Janata Party (U) will be a prime target for him.
Party leaders point out how Nitish earlier preempted such a blow by removing his former close aide, RCP Singh, due to his growing closeness to the BJP. Singh was later suspended by the BJP for some time before joining the party.
In one-on-one meetings, Nitish asked JD(U) lawmakers to share what they were hearing on the ground about “governance, politics, BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the uproar of opposition unity,” sources said.
Somehow, Nitish was placed more comfortably in Bihar than the NCP was in Maharashtra. JD(U) has 45 MLAs, and BJP with 78 can’t expect to take enough to form a government (the halfway mark is 122). Currently, no one in the ranks of the JD(U) is seen as strong enough to muster at least 30 MLAs to avoid the anti-defection law.
Informed sources said that the apparent flurry of political activity in the JD(U) was also intended as a message to the RJD alliance. There has recently been talk of AKP national chairman Lalu Prasad pressuring Nitish to vacate the prime minister’s chair to his son Tejachwe, and to move forward with his national ambitions and opposition unity plans. Speculation about Nitish’s actions has cooled the talk for the time being.
Incidentally, the past few days have also seen Deputy CM Tejashwi delay mass transfers in the health department he is running. Reportedly, Nitish was not in agreement with the transfer list.
The RJD’s nervousness may also be due to the constant uncertainty regarding Nitish’s “true” intentions. The BJP, for example, remains convinced that Nitish cannot stay with the RJD for long, given the corruption cases against its senior leaders, and watches with bated breath how impatient the RJD is to see Tejashwi in the CM chair.
On Monday, the CBI charged Tejachoi, along with Lalo and his wife Rabri, in a land-for-jobs scam. This was the first indictment against the deputy prime minister.
Meanwhile, on the opposition front, Nitish stock soared after the NCP split weakened Sharad Pawar. It is expected that Congress will count on him to talk to the parties in the front, whether to unite them or to win more, before the next meeting.
The Patna meeting saw Nitish bring Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress to one table, and there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party can emerge in Bengaluru despite its nonsense with the Congress.
A JD(U) lawmaker, who was among those who met Nitish, told The Indian Express not to read too much at the meetings. We’ve discussed partisan matters, potential election issues and what people are discussing at the grassroots level. People probably do a lot of conversations.”
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