Patna, June 21: The ruling Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) rebels today broke out from the mother outfit and formed a separate manch (forum) to step up a campaign against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for the latter’s “failure” on all fronts.
JD (U) Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha became the convener of Bihar Navnirman Manch — the new forum to calibrate the strategies and agitation programmes to be carried out against the Nitish-led government.
Among others, the forum included JD (U) MP Manganilal Mandal, state legislative council member Premkumar Mani, former MPs Arun Kumar and Ezaj Ali, and former legislators Ramanuj Yadav, Sudhanshu Shekhar and Sanjay Verma.
The JD (U) has already suspended Kushwaha, Mandal and Premkumar apart from the former state JD (U) chief and MP from Munger Lallan Singh and Aurangabad MP Sushil Kumar Singh, for their anti-party activities during the 2010 Assembly elections. The party has also sought their disqualification from Parliament from the speaker of Lok Sabha and the chairman of Rajya Sabha.
The new forum, however, appears fragile at the outset with sign of fissures apparent in the rank and file of dissidents. Lallan and Sushil Singh have stayed out from the forum and Premkumar Mani has already registered his objection to the structure of the forum. “I attended the initial meetings led by Upendra Kushwaha and Manganilal Mandal. But now I find that the savarn (upper caste) leaders, who were opposed to the uplift of the backward classes and Dalits, are the part of the forum. It, somehow, does not suit me,” Premkumar said. He, however, added, that there was “political vacuum” in the state with Nitish working in a “dictatorial fashion and Opposition getting enervated”.
The dissidents have chosen to form the new forum when the party’s national president, Sharad Yadav, is on a seven-day visit to the state. JD (U)’s national general secretary and MP Shivanand Tiwary dismissed the rebels’ efforts as a “diljalon ki jamat” (congregation of disgruntled members).
The rebels’ attempt to dislodge Nitish is nothing new. They formed Kisan Mahasabha, under the stewardship of late Banka MP Digvijay Singh and Lallan Singh ahead of 2010 Assembly polls. The Mahasabha gave a clarion call to dislodge the Nitish government from Gandhi Maidan and its leaders openly campaigned against the official JD (U) nominees.
While Digvijay himself won the Banka seat as an Independent nominee, the rebels’ supported candidates suffered humiliation all across the state. In fact, Kushwaha, a Koiri leader, had left the JD (U) ahead of 2009 Lok Sabha elections, forming a separate outfit and launching a campaign against Nitish. The chief minister, however, brought him back to the JD (U) fold ahead of the 2010 Assembly elections, making him a Rajya Sabha MP.
But “dejected” at Nitish denying tickets to his supporters in the Assembly polls, Kushwaha again rebelled against the party during the 2010 elections.
