Nitish Kumar

Patna, July 31: Chief minister Nitish Kumar hasn’t convinced his BJP ally with the plea that there is no “political content” to his recent dalliance with tainted elements like Anand Mohan Singh.

Top state BJP leaders, some of Nitish’s ardent supporters among them, are upset at what they call his “unseemly overtures” to such leaders in the run-up to Assembly elections and warned it will hurt the alliance’s prospects more than help them.

“His visit to Anand Mohan’s home has sullied his reputation, there was no need for it,” a senior BJP leader told The Telegraph. “It is a bad signal he is sending out at the end of a good term in office.”

The party has fallen in line with Nitish’s diktat on the Narendra Modi issue, but it is now seeking corrections from the chief minister on his image front.

Asked whether the BJP had raised the issue with the chief minister, the leader said: “Nitishji is mature enough to understand the adverse implications of such things, he is not a fool to think people will believe him when he says he is only fulfilling social obligations. He is only betraying his nerves and hurting his image in the process.”

Crime control and “clean politics” has been a big-ticket claim of the Nitish government and many believe it to be one of his key elections cards. Law and order has markedly improved, conviction for crime has registered an all-time high and a string of notorious, though powerful, political dons — Mohammed Shahabuddin, Suraj Bhan, Munna Shukla and Anand Mohan included — lie barred from the electoral process.

But as elections near, Nitish’s allies apprehend that he is being “lured into the temptation” of getting some of them on his side, if only indirectly, if only as a means to outflank his adversaries.

His controversial call on the family of Anand Mohan — the former MLA is serving a life term for the murder of IAS officer G. Krishnaiyya — is being widely seen as an attempt to enlist additional support from beyond Nitish’s traditional extremely backward caste (EBC) constituency.

A similar analysis is being put on the recent entry into the JD(U) of Mohammed Taslimuddin, another “strongarm” politician.

“Nitish Kumar has built a reputation for himself that does not sit well with names like Anand Mohan and Taslimuddin,” said a BJP leader. “He does not need them on his side, he needs to keep them away. If the signal goes out that he is willing to go soft and pamper them for his political ends, it will affect not just Nitish but the entire ruling alliance.”

The chief minister has pointedly allayed suggestions of any backdoor wooing of tainted elements, but the BJP isn’t buying it.

Increasingly, it fears, people too will become suspicious of the chief minister’s motives if he “does not send a firm signal” that he will have nothing to do with stained reputations. “He must be able to sound credible when he says he is for ridding politics of crime and criminals,” the BJP leader said.

“The visit to Anand Mohan’s home has eroded his credibility somewhat on this front and he will have to make amends.”

He conceded that political compulsions — rather compulsions of caste configuration — might have driven Nitish Kumar to “open channels” with Anand Mohan Singh. Estrangement with influential Rajput and Bhumihar leaders like Prabhunath Singh and Lallan Singh has probably left the chief minister a little insecure about a sizeable section of the upper caste vote in the state and the Anand Mohan gambit might be a bid to counterbalance his losses.

Prabhunath and Lallan are in the process of allying with Nitish’s adversaries — Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress — and there are worries in the chief minister’s camp that they could seriously dent his electoral prospects.

The BJP, though, is deeply critical of Nitish’s resort to the likes of Anand Mohan Singh, even if it is merely tactical.

“There is a central issue at stake here, the chief minister’s own reputation as head of a clean government,” said the leader. “If he loses that, no amount of Anand Mohan Singhs and Taslimuddins are going to be able to bridge the gap.”