Jha

Patna, April 12: The decision of BJP legislator Sanjay Jha, said to be the link between Nitish Kumar and the BJP high command, not to seek re-nomination to the Legislative Council is the first signal that a realignment is in the offing in the event of the alliance breaking down in Bihar.

Jha, perceived to be close to the chief minister and who moves like Nitish’s shadow in public functions, has apprised deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Bihar BJP president C.P. Thakur about his wish. He completes his term in the state’s upper chamber in June this year.

The move comes in the backdrop of an internal strife within the BJP. One faction of the party is backing the RSS’s efforts to assiduously woo the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), a core votebank of Nitish. Another group, led by Sushil Modi, is working hard to keep the alliance afloat.

What appears to have aggravated the trouble for the alliance is the perceived rise in the stature of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi following the clean chit given to him by investigators appointed by the Supreme Court to probe the Gulbarg Society massacre of 2002.

The Gujarat chief minister is seen to be Nitish’s chief rival in the undeclared competition for a possible national prize after the next general election, due in 2014.

“The special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court has given a clean chit to Narendra Modi in a Gujarat riot case, the biggest slur on his persona so far. Now it will be hard for the BJP leadership to check his surge within the party,” said a senior BJP leader. “The development will drive him (Modi) to pressure the leadership to accept him as the main public face of the party at the national level.”

BJP sources said the SIT “clean chit” to Modi has come as a dampener for those working to keep the alliance going. “It is known to all that once Narendra Modi emerges as the BJP’s main face, the JDU-BJP alliance could meet an abrupt death,” said a party leader. “The situation is drifting towards that end.”

Bihar leaders are, therefore, keeping an eye on the political scenario. The political future of Jha, a product of the BJP leadership that struck and kept afloat the alliance with Nitish, will be mired in uncertainty in the event of the Narendra Modi-led Hindutva brigade taking control of the party.

Jha’s decision — forced or voluntary — to opt out of the BJP is being seen in NDA circles here as a prelude to his joining the JD(U) and contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls either from his home constituency of Darbhanga or from Madhubani or even Jhanjharpur in the same Mithila region on a JD(U) ticket.

Sources in the JD(U) said the party too was carrying out a “survey” to measure its health at the ground-level in the event of the break-up of the 16-year-old alliance.

Senior BJP leaders have now openly begun speaking out against Nitish for “ignoring” their cadres. Replying to a query related to the “heartburn” in the JD(U) over the BJP’s wooing of EBCs, party veteran and national executive member R.K. Sinha said: “It is the other way round. The BJP is more peeved at its cadres being cold-shouldered by the Nitish government. The BJP leadership was not present on the banners of the Bihar Divas celebrations and the party cadres have been kept out from the appointments of additional public prosecutors and public prosecutors in the courts or other forums at the district and block level.”

“There is great resentment among the cadres against the government as they feel ignored at all levels of governance,” he added.

Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said the JD(U) was making too much of the BJP’s wooing of the EBCs. “It is nothing new and the JD(U) should hardly make it an issue. The RSS has been working among Dalits, adivasis and poor sections of the society long before the JD(U) was born,” he said.

The war of words is a sign of the dark clouds gathering on the alliance. A senior leader, who wished anonymity, said: “World wars did not break out suddenly but only after a build-up for years. We are seeing the build-up in the making for the first time in the 16 years of the alliance between the JD(U) and BJP. The trust deficit is growing.”