With no let up in the differences between the two major allies of Bihar mahagathbandhan, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is expected to take a harsh action on Tuesday, a day after the polling for the presidential election.
On Sunday Nitish interacted with his legislators who had been called for a training on casting their votes in favour of Ram Nath Kovind. Many of the MlAs reportedly favoured dropping of the Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav after his refusal to quit as desired by the CM.
RJD supremo lalu Prasad who held the meeting of his legislators and later joined the Congress MlAs meeting claimed that some JD(U) MlAs might vote for Congress nominee Meira Kumar violating the party’s directive. lalu apparently gave a hint of uneasiness in the JD(U) camp over Nitish’s moves to come closer to the BJP. The JD(U), however, denied any rift in the party over support to NDA candidate.
However, Sunday passed off peacefully in the politically volatile atmosphere of Bihar with no leader of either RJD or JD(U) issued sparkling statement on the fate of the Mahagathbandhan or the future of Deputy CM Tejashwi. All the three parties of the grand alliance RJD, JD(U) and Congress held separate meetings of their legislators and later on RJD and Congress legislators had a joint meeting. But at all these meetings, the only agenda was Monday’s polling for presidential election.
There had been wide speculation that the issue of Tejashwi’s resignation, which he has refused to tender, and on the future of alliance would be discussed at least at the JD(U) legislators meeting which was chaired by CM Nitish Kumar. But a the conclusion of the meeting State party chief Bashistha Narain Singh said the meeting discussed only presidential election and the legislators were told about the voting. “We had no other agenda and nothing else was discussed,” he said.
In a related move, the JD(U) has cancelled its national executive meeting which was scheduled to be held on July 23 in New Delhi obviously in view of the prevailing political situation in Bihar.
While the leaders of the grand alliance preferred to maintain silence and restrain the BJP leaders tried their best to poke both lalu and Nitish and claimed that the countdown for the Mahagathb-andhan has already started. Former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said if Tejashwi was refusing to resign the CM should sack him. Modi also had an advise for lalu’s younger son. He said Tejashwi should come out of the shadow of his father like former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav. “If you have to play a long political inning you should resign and stay away from Government until cleared of the charges. It is your father who have implicated you in the corruption cases. You should now return whatever properties had been gifted to you when you were minor,” said Modi.