Patna, June 11: The BJP in Bihar is enjoying the winds of change blowing through the state after being freed of the no-Narendra Modi shackles imposed by Nitish Kumar.
So much so, BJP ministers are acting as if nothing has happened. Today, at an official function in Chhapra, labour minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal was seen speaking amicably with the chief minister. At the secretariat, BJP ministers came to their office as usual. Health minister Ashwini Choubey inaugurated a hostel for nurses. “Let the chief minister officially break the relationship. He has said he will review the alliance. He has not said he will break the alliance,” quipped a BJP minister.
Even deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, thus far an ardent backer of Nitish, is reported to have praised Narendra Modi but in the same breath added that the Bihar alliance would survive.
“It’s for the JD(U) to decide if it wants to continue with the alliance or not. We have decided what we have to do,” said BJP minister and convener of the state NDA, Nand Kishore Yadav. He pointed out that the BJP-JD(U) government was running on the basis of a common minimum programme which still exists.
However, BJP leaders made it clear they were ready for life after JD(U). “Once the JD(U) decides that they want to be out of the alliance, it will not take me a minute to get out of the ministry,” said another BJP minister, who, however, refused to speak on record in the interest of coalition dharma. “State office-bearers of the BJP are to meet on Wednesday and discuss the strategy for the next Lok Sabha polls,” he added.
The weekly janata durbar of Sushil Modi and a scheduled media interaction of state party chief Mangal Pandey were cancelled on Tuesday owing to the death of the father of a BJP MLA from Nawada.
The party appears to be solidly behind Narendra Modi. “Once a decision is made it cannot be withdrawn. Besides, Narendra Modi is not just the choice of the BJP. He is the choice of the cadre and the people,” said BJP’s national vice-president C.P. Thakur, one of the most vociferous backers of the Gujarat chief minister.
BJP leaders said they would like the JD(U) to forget about the 2002 Gujarat riots and move on. “For now we would not like to be bogged down by statements and counter-statements. We would like to concentrate on winning seats in the Lok Sabha. The JD(U) is raising an unnecessary issue of secularism. The Gujarat communal violence took place in 2002. After that the allies who wanted to leave the NDA left. Now the issues are development and corruption,” said BJP MLA and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Rameshwar Chaurasia.
Internally, party sources said they are gearing up to fight all 40 seats on their own. “When the alliance initially came into being, the then Samata Party was given just 18 of the 54 seats in joint Bihar. We were the big brothers. But then they kept on getting splinter groups with Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan joining them and increasing their numbers. In bifurcated Bihar, we started off fighting 16 of the 40 seats and were reduced to 15 later. It’s time to reclaim our dominance in Bihar again,” said a senior leader, recalling that in the 1995 Assembly elections, the BJP had emerged as the main Opposition while Nitish Kumar had been stuck with six seats.
However, the BJP is aware that a lot of water has flown down the Ganga since 1995, particularly after 2005. The BJP had projected Nitish as the chief minister and the credit of governance went to him while the party was left to play second fiddle. Rewinding the clock would be a difficult task. “But it is wrong to dub the BJP as a party of Baniyas and a section of upper castes. We have made our entry in the EBC and Dalit votes also,” said a senior BJP leader.
BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha said the allies should try and sort out their problems. “The party should see the writing on the wall. I hold Nitish Kumar in high esteem as a wise and capable man. He will not talk about anything lightly. There is merit in what he speaks,” Sinha said.
