Patna, June 20: A need to assert himself on the national stage and force “big brother” BJP to take note while deflecting attention from the murmurs of discontent surrounding his perceived susashan raj (good governance) may have prompted chief minister Nitish Kumar to make his “secular” charge that is aimed at Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Sources in the NDA said Nitish’s assertion that the NDA should name a “secular” prime ministerial candidate ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections should be seen in totality, coming as it does in the aftermath of his indication of support for Pranab Mukherjee as the presidential nominee and his refusal to toe the BJP line.

Several insiders in the RSS strongly believe that a strong BJP lobby which is unhappy with Narendra Modi’s increasing stature in the party sought to strike at the Gujarat chief minister through Nitish.

Sources in the NDA said Nitish had communicated in clear terms to the BJP that the President should be elected on the basis of a “consensus” and he reportedly favours Mukherjee for the top slot. However, the BJP still prevaricating and looking for a contestant against the finance minister is said to have peeved Nitish. “Nitish wants the BJP to appreciate his wish on a crucial issue,” said a JD(U) leader.

But the sources also contend that Nitish’s statement is a bid to divert attention from the complaints that not all is well in his raj. The Opposition also agrees.

“Apni asafalta chhipane ke liye Nitish ne hasua ke biah mein khurpi ka geet gaya hai (Nitish has sung the song of sickle suited for the wedding of a weed-remover to hide his failures),” said Dalit leader and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.

Paswan, besides several other RJD and LJP leaders, pointed out that Nitish had, of late, started facing protests and opposition, even during his Seva Yatra.

“With five years of honeymoon over, the people have begun questioning the Nitish regime in his second term. You can see countless protests and demonstrations on the issue of lack of electricity, drinking water and deteriorating law and order situation,” Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui said, adding that Nitish had resorted to political gimmick to deviate the people’s attention from his failures.

The Opposition’s charges do not appear to be wholly out of place. The murder of Ranvir Sena chief, Brahmeshwar Singh “Mukhiya”, and its violent aftermath posed the first major challenge to susashan (good governance) — Nitish’s much vaunted USP.

Not only did the supporters of the slain Ranvir Sena chief hold Patna and large parts of the state to ransom, the developments posed a threat to Nitish’s assiduously built unity between the EBCs and Mahadalits — his new social combination — and the upper caste Bhumihars.

The Bhumihars in their “fierce” battle against Lalu Prasad had supported Nitish to get into the saddle in 2005 while the EBCs, Mahadalits and a section of Muslims had enabled consolidating him his position with the NDA securing 206 seats in the 2010 Assembly polls.

However, the dominant Bhumihar lobby in the BJP projected Brahmeshwar as “Gandhi”, pressuring the “friendly” government to institute a CBI probe into it. The developments created suspicion among the EBC and Dalit sections about Nitish’s “sense of justice” for them with his government sitting over their demand to move the Supreme Court against Patna High Court’s order acquitting Brahmeshwar and 22 of his associates in the Bathani Tola massacre of 1996.

Brahmeshwar’s death and its aftermath, in fact, exposed the contradictions between the two contradictory social forces at the micro level, precipitating the differences that already existed at the upper level.

As of now, there is a raging war of words between the JD(U) and the BJP. “Senior BJP and RSS leaders should not have reacted so sharply on what Nitish has said in an interview. Nitish has talked about his ideology that is known to all. The JD(U) has all along been talking about a secular PM. Both BJP and the JD(U) are aware of their basic differences on certain policy issues,” state party chief and MP Basishtha Narayan Singh said. “What Nitishji has stated is hardly new,” he added.

Other senior JD(U) leaders also said the BJP leaders should desist from “going overboard” on what the chief minister has said. “We have been talking about secularism and secular ethos ever since our inception,” the party’s national general secretary, Shivanand Tiwary, said.

However, Nitish’s cabinet colleague and animal and fish resources minister Giriraj Singh challenged Nitish to remove him from the cabinet. “We have not given the right to anyone (read Nitish) to issue a certificate of secularism to our leaders. Modi is 200 per cent secular leader. If he (Nitish) finds fault with my claim, he can well sack me from the ministry.”