 |
| Chief minister Nitish Kumar on his way to the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar |
Patna, March 14: The tug-of-war between the JD(U) and the BJP over Rajya Sabha seats continued today with deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi countering the JD(U)’s fourth seat wish.
A day after chief minister Nitish Kumar sought the BJP’s support for the fourth seat, Modi said: “We expect the JD(U) to support our third candidate in lieu of the BJP’s support to the JD(U) nominees with its (BJP’s) additional MLAs in 2006 and 2010 Rajya Sabha polls.”
The statement of Modi — admittedly the “key architect” of the JD(U)-BJP alliance along with the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley — made it clear that the standoff over an Upper House seat has not died down.
The two ruling allies, apparently, are fighting to extract more from the “booty” handed down by the humiliating defeat of Lalu Prasad’s RJD in the 2010 Assembly elections. Reduced to 22 MLAs in the Assembly, the RJD is not in a position to retain its two MPs, Rajniti Prasad and Jabir Hussein, this biennial election.
While the JD(U) has its three MPs — King Mahendra, Anil Sahni and Ali Anwar — completing their term, the BJP has its national spokesman, Ravi Shankar Prasad from Bihar.
Insiders in the JD(U) revealed that Nitish wanted the JD(U) and BJP to share one seat each from the RJD’s spoil. In that case, the JD(U) would bag four seats against the BJP’s two.
Refusing to yield to Nitish’s persuasion, the BJP today came out with numerical logic to stake its claim on the third seat.
“The BJP had given its 19 and six additional votes to the JD(U) nominees in 2006 and 2010 biennial elections,” the party spokesman, Sanjay Mayukh, said, requesting the JD(U) leadership to return the gesture this time around.
The senior BJP leaders pointed out that according to the existing numerical scenario, the JD(U) has only 13 additional seats in its kitty to support its sixth candidate while the BJP has 21 additional seats for its third candidate.
“The party (BJP) that has more additional MLAs must be allowed to get its nominee through,” Mayukh said.
In an apparent bid to force Nitish to rollback on his claim for the fourth seat, the BJP’s state election committee today formally reminded the JD(U) that it was its turn to return the gesture. Sources in the BJP revealed that the party had requested Nitish twice in the recent past to withdraw his claim on the sixth seat.
Nitish, till now, is in no mood to budge. Sources in the JD(U) said the chief minister might speak to Jaitley and other senior representatives of the BJP high command to have his way on one of the seats being vacated by the RJD.
While the BJP and the JD(U) are fighting over the “problem of plenty”, the RJD is in real trouble. It has no way out to retain the two Rajya Sabha seats it is losing.
Lalu Prasad has several “genuine” claimants to the lone legislative council seat it might bag.
The RJD boss had persuaded Sonepur MLA then Ramanuj Prasad to vacate his Assembly seat for Rabri Devi on the promise to accommodate him in the council.
Unfortunately for Ramanuj and the RJD, Rabri lost both at Sonepur and Raghopur and her party was reduced to 22 MLAs.
The RJD also has the old warhorse, Ramchandra Purbe, who too lost the Assembly polls as its state president. In the changed scenario, Lalu might like Purbe to enter the council on the lone seat his party was likely to bag.
But in that case, Ramanuj, also an old Lalu loyalist and a Yadav, would be left high and dry. Besides, there are several other senior RJD leaders who lost the elections and might be eying the council berth.