New Delhi, July 5: Sushil Kumar Modi today called Lalu Prasad the "Robert Vadra of Bihar" and slammed Nitish Kumar for his silence on corruption, toeing the BJP's strategy to fish in troubled waters in Bihar, aimed at disintegrating the Grand Alliance that halted Narendra Modi's victory march in the state.
"Lalu Prasad is the Robert Vadra of Bihar. Over 125 properties acquired by Lalu and his family fall under benami transactions," Modi said, as he sought to highlight the corruption charges against Lalu's family and chief minister Nitish Kumar's silence.
"We are exposing but the Bihar government is silent. Nitish says there is zero tolerance against corruption but he is not acting against corruption cases taken up by the income tax officials," he said, while refraining from attacking Nitish any further.
Modi's effort to keep up the pressure over corruption charges on Lalu and egg Nitish to speak out by highlighting his silence were understood to be part of the central BJP's strategy to push the already strained relations between the two major partners of the ruling alliance to part ways.
The BJP believes the gulf between Lalu and Nitish had widened further after the JDU's decision to support NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind and they need to give it a push to break the alliance.
The BJP, according to sources, feels the Grand Alliance comprising JDU-RJD-Congress that halted the saffron surge in the Bihar Assembly elections would once again pose a challenge in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls if it remains intact.
"Nitish Kumar is not comfortable at all. Lalu continues to meddle in governance on a daily basis. We believe this is an unnatural alliance and it is a matter of time before Nitish raises his hands and walks out," a BJP leader said, hoping the parting will come before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP is eyeing to have a fragmented opposition when it faces the 2019 polls.
The BJP so far is refraining from exhibiting eagerness to get back Nitish as their ally but internally, party leaders said, they would be more than happy if that happens. It would be a personal victory for Modi, since it would amount to the JDU boss gulping all the venom he had spat against Modi ahead of 2014, party leaders said.
The central leadership, however, is aware that Nitish would not return willingly to their fold but only under compulsion and so the constant push to further drive a wedge between the two ruling partners. "It is very difficult to read the mind of Nitish. He is definitely giving signals that he was extremely uncomfortable in the present alliance and was happier with the BJP but when he will finally call it a day is difficult to predict," a BJP leader said.
The leader recalled how Nitish had started posturing in the same way well in advance while he prepared to end his 17-year-old alliance with the BJP.
A section of the BJP, mostly senior leaders, however, believe Nitish had no plans to retrace his steps back to the saffron fold and was only trying to put pressure on ally Lalu to gain more elbow room to govern with freedom. This section feels Nitish was aware the current BJP was very different and he cannot hope to have the same freedom he enjoyed previously as the leader of the NDA in Bihar.
"Returning to BJP would be no less than humiliation for Nitish. He knows very well that this BJP was not the same party he had been with," a BJP leader said.
