Patna, Feb. 10: The BJP's decimation in the Delhi election has brought cheers to the camp of chief ministerial-hopeful Nitish Kumar and cast a cloud on the fortunes of the dissident-incumbent, Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose supporters fear that the endgame may be near.
On a day the Aam Aadmi Party pummelled the BJP, Bihar's Governor in-charge Keshari Nath Tripathi met President Pranab Mukherjee, kindling hope in the JDU camp about the early return of Nitish to power.
What also reinforced their hope was that the AAP's more-than-a-landslide victory had taken the wind out of the BJP's sails and would force the party to keep out of the Bihar muddle at this juncture.
"Propping up Manjhi in office in the election-bound state, particularly after the party's debacle in Delhi, would be a dangerous move. It is not known how many votes Manjhi will fetch for us but what is known is the charges of horse-trading will stick to us if Manjhi survives any longer."
Without the BJP's backing, Manjhi is in no position to pass a trial of strength on the floor of the House. The chief minister, an unattached member of the Assembly since his expulsion from the Janata Dal United yesterday, requires the support of the 87 BJP members to get anywhere close to the majority figure of 117.
Bihar minister Vinay Bihari, one of the most vocal supporters of Manjhi, admitted that without the BJP's support, they wouldn't be able to prove majority in the House.
"The fact is that we will not be able to make it without the BJP's support. The Delhi election results have been shocking and proved to be a setback for us too. We had been fully dependent on the BJP for support," Bihari said.
Buoyed by the Delhi results, the Nitish camp made a show of strength at the Patna airport this evening. A contingent of 140 people, among them Nitish and 127 MLAs along with their aides and family members, took off in two planes for New Delhi, where they intend to parade before the President.
Nitish's 48-hour deadline to Governor Tripathi to resolve the impasse and call him for a trial of strength expires tomorrow.
Besides the drubbing in Delhi, Manjhi's bluster on passing a trial of strength has also been blunted by the BJP's refusal to offer any concrete promises to the MLAs who break away from the JDU or RJD.
BJP sources revealed that party president Amit Shah has "summarily refused" to guarantee election tickets to legislators lured away from the Nitish or Lalu Prasad camps.
Though senior BJP leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav dismissed any impact of the Delhi debacle on the party's prospects in Bihar, many of its cadres and leaders were gripped by dejection.
"We have paid a heavy price for ignoring the sentiments of dedicated workers. Unless we take corrective action in Bihar, which is next on the electoral agenda, the Delhi story may be repeated in Bihar," tweeted former health minister and BJP's veteran warhorse, Chandramohan Rai.
But beyond the calculations of immediate gains and losses, almost all the parties - be it the BJP-led NDA camp or the Janata parivar factions and the Congress - were worried at the sudden emergence of the new kind of politics introduced by AAP and Arvind Kejriwal.
The victory processions taken out by AAP supporters in Patna were different - dominated by youths, most of them wearing the AAP topi.
"I have not attended any political party's procession so far. I stopped checking myself from participating in the AAP's procession," said Israr Ahmad (25), a cycle mechanic dancing to the tune of drums and cymbals on the streets.
"AAP has fuelled hunger for politics in a section which was largely apolitical or disenchanted with political establishment. AAP has given a new crop of people - mostly young and struggling professionals, petty workers, slum dwellers and vendors - a political space which they otherwise wouldn't have found in conventional politics. In the process, it is making a new constituency," said Razi Ahmad, a Gandhian and secretary to the Gandhi Sangrahalaya.
But not all agreed. Socialist veteran and former JDU MP, Shivanand Tiwari, said: "Bihar's caste-based society is still far away from going the Delhi way. Delhi is a different society made up largely of migrants from various parts of the country. Though the migrants have gone there from different cultural and caste identities, they are carrying out a common struggle for livelihood. It is still a long way for AAP to replicate in Bihar what they have achieved in Delhi."
