let’s see what magic Nitish-lalu can create
What has brought arch rivals Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad together after a long gap of two decades is clear. But it is far from certain whether they will achieve their goal through this alliance. The people of Bihar have not forgotten the jungle raj of the Rashtriya Janata Dal with lalu Prasad and later his wife Rabri Devi as Chief Minister. The people also remember that Mr Nitish Kumar rose to prominence by his opposition to lalu Prasad's disastrous governance. They also recollect with clarity that Mr Nitish Kumar had broken ranks with lalu Prasad on the issue of good governance. Now, suddenly, both these leaders have joined hands, embraced each other in public, and vowed to together fight the by-election to be held on August 21 in the State to 10 Assembly constituencies. They are hoping to neutralise the surge of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies through what they think is an iron-clad social engineering. They must also be toying with the idea of extending the partnership to the coming Assembly election, depending on how well they do in the immediate test. Mr Nitish Kumar, who snapped ties with the BJP because he was ‘in principle' opposed to Mr Narendra Modi's projection as a prime ministerial candidate, has set aside his precious principles to tie up with a convicted and disqualified lalu Prasad. The sense of compulsion behind his decision is unmistakable. Mr Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) along with lalu Prasad's party was decimated in the recent lok Sabha election, with the BJP-led alliance virtually sweeping the State. But the coming together of two battered and rejected parties is not likely to sway the voters in their favour. On the contrary, the anger and a sense of betrayal among the people who had backed the JD(U) all these years because of its opposition to the RJD, may find reflection in the results. Both the RJD and the JD(U) are depending on simple caste mathematics — believing that the Yadavs, the other backwards and the Dalits will all come into their fold. But they fail to realise they could not retain even their individual vote-banks in the lok Sabha election.
Mr Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad have claimed that the new alliance is not after power but that it aims to stop the BJP from moving ahead. Both the RJD and the JD(U) have the right to adopt the best means they can to checkmate political rivals. If they believe that by joining hands they can achieve the purpose, so be it. Both would want the BJP not to win the coming Assembly poll, and if the alliance holds on, they are probably looking forward to a JD(U)-RJD-Congress Government in Patna.
The BJP may have reason to be apprehensive about the new partnership, but it does not seem unduly worried. One reason could be that it retains the momentum of the sweeping victory in the lok Sabha seats from the State. The other is its belief that the RJD-JD(U) tie-up is not going to work at the grassroots level. The third reason for its apparent complacence could be the internecine quarrels of Mr Nitish Kumar's party, which, the BJP calculates, is rendering the JD(U) weak from within. Whatever the case may be, the result of the August by-election will indicate the direction Bihar’s politics can take.