Bihar’s mahagathbandhan seemed poised for collapse though efforts were on by the three allies — the Janata Dal(U), the Congress and the RJD — to keep it afloat. Though both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo lalu Prasad on Tuesday reined in their spokespersons from attacking each others, senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi triggered speculation by commenting that his party was more comfortable in running the previous coalition Government in Bihar with the BJP.
After Nitish Kumar chose to back NDA’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, differences among the allies erupted. lalu called Nitish decision as a “historic” blunder and the Congress accused the Bihar CM of plotting to defeat Opposition candidate Meira Kumar.
The crisis was aggravated on Tuesday with Tyagi’s acerbic comment on the three-party alliance. The JD(U) leader also hit out at the Congress’ “unfriendly and unwarranted” attack on Nitish Kumar and wondered why the party seemed bent on shortening the life of the grand alliance.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that those who have one principle take one decision and those who have many take different decisions, a jibe aimed at Kumar.
Though Tyagi referred to his party’s “natural” relations with the BJP when it was part of the NDA, he insisted that there was no question of joining the saffron alliance as of now. “Our support to Kovind is an isolated incident. Why are some people bent on making it permanent with such comments and shortening the life of our grand allianceIJ Azad’s comments are not in good taste. These are unfriendly and unwarranted. We have never made critical remarks against Congress leaders,” Tyagi said.
To a question about the growing speculation about the JD (U) coming closer to the BJP, its ally for 17 years before they split in 2013, Tyagi said the ideological differences that caused their separation remain. “Our relations with the BJP were ‘sahaj’ (natural) but we parted ways due to our ideological differences,” he said.
Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had also attacked his boss Nitish calling him opportunist and egoist. Others from RJD like Raghubansh Prasad Singh and Bhai Birendra had also issued acidic remarks against the CM. The spokesmen of JD(U) lost no time in counter attack asking lalu Prasad to oust Singh and Birendra.
In an attempt to control the damage, lalu asked his leaders to maintain restrain, sacked one spokesman, and called Birendra and admonished him.
later, Tejashwi blamed the BJP and the media for trying to create a rift in the alliance which, he said, was rock solid.
In his interaction with party spokespersons on Tuesday, Nitish gave them two directives: one to effectively counter the charges against the party leadership, and secondly not to issue any comment against the leaders of the mahagathbandhan.
Shivanand Tewari, who is functioning as close adviser to lalu, also said that Nitish would not walkout of the alliance and there was no threat to gathbandhan.