Senior BJP leaders in Bihar are blaming the media for “trying to create a bogey” about the impending split in the BJP-JD(U) leadership. “Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and other BJP ministers have reasons to be worried. If such an event occurs, they will end up losing their ministerial posts. But that is not the only problem. There will be a major dilemma,” mused a BJP MLA. e said for over two years ever since chief minister Nitish Kumar had a stand-off with his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, BJP ministers have toed his line of “No Modi in Bihar”. “They fear to mention Modi’s name and ensure that his posters are not displayed in party functions. What will happen if Modi is made BJP’s prime ministerial candidate?” he wondered. After refusing Legislative Council chairperson Tarakant Jha a renewal ticket, there is anxiety in BJP that the constitutional post might not be offered to them at all. JD(U) Council members have demanded that they get the post as they outnumber their BJP colleagues in the House. “According to the agreement between the allies, the post of the Assembly speaker goes to the JD(U) and the Council chairperson is from the BJP. But Nitish Kumar made us wait for three years before giving us the post. This time, too, acting deputy chairperson Salim Parwez— from JD(U) — could be made the acting chairperson,” said a senior BJP leader. Senior bureaucrats in the state have to begun to grumble about accompanying the chief minister (CM) on his Seva Yatra. One officer said how he fell ill after sweating it out with Nitish in the heat. Another said he had no time for official work, as he had to accompany the chief minister. A close aide of Nitish, however, said: “The officers have only themselves to blame. The CM had asked all officials to spend a few nights every month in the villages. None of them has complied. If the CM had not been strict at his weekly janata darbars, the officials would have ever interacted ith the masses.”
Sunday, 18 May 2025
