Secret to alliance success: no answers
BJP leaders have found themselves unable to take questions about alliance partner Janata Dal United nominating an MLC (Khalid Anwar) who openly criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Gandhi Maidan. When the question popped up before Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi suddenly called off the news meet the BJP had called to highlight achievements of the Ujjwala Phase II scheme. “It is a development no BJP leader can defend and it has cooled off relationship between the two parties. But we need Nitish Kumar and Nitish needs us, so we stay together,” said a senior BJP leader, stressing that he has had to make hectic efforts to ensure BJP leaders do not issue a statement on the issue.
“The BJP’s gag on its leaders is for the second time. Last month JDU leaders were all out against the role of some senior BJP leaders for the communal flare-up,” said a BJP leader.
A shot please
As soon as former Union minister Yashwant Sinha announced from a stage on Saturday that he was quitting the BJP, party leaders got busy on their cellphones — talking to media persons covering the event at SK Memorial Hall. “Did Shatrughan Sinha (Patna Sahib MP) say that he would follow Yashwant Sinha,” one senior leader asked. He sounded disheartened at hearing that wasn’t the case. “Shatrughan Sinha always describes Yashwant Sinha as his guardian. He should follow his guardian,” the leader muttered. Party leaders said both Yashwant and Shatrughan have been outsiders for all practical reasons and Bihar BJP leaders avoid being seen with them. “But while Yashwant’s son Jayant Sinha (in picture) continues to be the BJP’s most likely candidate from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, a lot of BJP leaders want Shotgun’s seat in Patna, and the more quickly he vacates it the better, because they will have to lobby for it,” a BJP leader remarked.
Time it right
Tej Pratap Yadav vacated his official residence two months ago, saying chacha Nitish Kumar had let out ghosts in the bungalow, but younger brother Tejashwi Yadav continues to stick to his bungalow — 5 Deshratna Marg — and refuses to budge. He is making sounds of Nitish’s “dictatorship” but NDA leaders see through his game. “He wants TV channels to show him being officially evicted from the venue by force for political mileage even when he is in a legally weak position,” said a JDU leader, stressing that he did admire Tejashwi’s political timing.
New order
There is a buzz in the RJD that the engagement party (in picture) of Tej Pratap Yadav and Chandrika Rai’s daughter Aishwarya last week actually showed the new order of the RJD. “Among the MLAs, only Bhola Yadav and Shakti Yadav were present and of course, a member of the sand mafia. Senior leaders like Jagadanand Singh and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh were missing as they were not invited. No wonder Rabri Devi accepted the security cover without waiting for the chief minister’s reply to her second letter. They knew it would be difficult to control the situation if the event took place at a hotel without the security cover,” said an RJD MLA, who was sulking at being uninvited to the engagement ceremony.
