In a high-voltage political drama, Nitish Kumar was unanimously re-elected leader of JD(U) legislative party on Sunday, but he sought time till Monday to rethink his decision of withdrawing resignation from the post of the Chief Minister.
The last two days of development capped a serious power struggle within the JD(U) between Nitish Kumar and party chief Sharad Yadav, who on Saturday said a new Chief Minister would be elected at the legislative party meeting. At the Sunday meeting, as pro-Nitish slogans rented the air, several MlAs openly criticised Sharad Yadav.
Against the backdrop of a ginger group in the party trying to hold Nitish responsible for JD(U)’s rout in the lok Sabha polls, Nitish had resigned on Saturday as Chief Minister on moral grounds and called a legislative party meeting at his official residence on Sunday.
As thousands of JD(U) supporters took to the streets in every part of Bihar to express solidarity with Nitish, it was obvious that there was no alternative to his leadership in the party. The sentiments echoed at the legislature party meeting too, where JD(U) MlAs unanimously elected him again as their leader and implored him to take up the CM’s post again.
Nitish Kumar tried his best to convince his party legislators to relieve him from the administrative duty so that he could devote more time for the party organisation and bring the party back to power in next year’s Assembly poll with a thumping majority. “Also, if I withdraw my resignation, the BJP leaders would say that I was doing drama over all this,” Nitish Kumar said in his speech.
But the party MlAs refused to budge from their stand and said they would not leave the place until he accepted to withdraw his resignation and become the Chief Minister once again. All the party MlAs, MlCs and two Independent legislators Pawan Jaiswal and Vinay Bihari were present in the meeting.Emotional party MlAs shouted slogans in favour of Nitish Kumar and also protested against party Sharad Yadav for fomenting crisis in the party. Some of the party legislators even questioned his presence in the meeting of party legislators. When Sharad Yadav entered Chief Minister’s official residence, 1, Anne Marg, JD(U) supporters shouted slogans against him.
On Saturday, Sharad Yadav had said that the party would elect a new leader in its legislative body meeting in Patna and Nitish Kumar would not withdraw his resignation.
This stirred party legislators’ meetings at various places. One meeting took place at the Nitish Mishra’s residence, whereas another meeting was held at the residence of senior party leader and Cabinet Minister Narendra Singh, who has emerged as a main troublemaker for Nitish. Some of the party leaders also met Sharad Yadav at the State guesthouse.
At the same time, hundreds of JD(U) supporters and leaders started streaming in at the gate of Nitish Kumar’s official residence.“Bihar ka vikas adhuri hai, Nitish Kumar jaroori hai...Nitish Kumar zindababd…Nitish nahi to koi nahi…Sharad Yadav wapas jao,” they shouted slogans with placards in their hands. When the JD(U) legislators started for the scheduled meeting, Nitish Kumar’s supporters stopped each of them to convey that they consider only Nitish Kumar as their leader.
Significantly, all the MlAs delivered their seemingly rehearsed dialogue that “only Nitish Kumar will be their leader and none else” and moved on to attend the meeting.Interestingly, Narendra Singh first proposed the name of Nitish Kumar to be elected as the leader of party’s legislative body and the MlAs unanimously supported it. Sensing the emotionally surcharged mood of the MlAs, Sharad Yadav too supported the move.
Then the JD(U) MlAs demanded in one voice that Nitish Kumar should withdraw his resignation from the post of Chief Minister and even threatened to sit on an indefinite fast. When Nitish Kumar could not convince them, he declared that the decision on withdrawing his resignation would be taken on Monday.
The development left Sharad Yadav in a tight spot, because it showed he did not have support among the party, and there were few takers for his move to bring to the JD(U) and the RJD together.However, RJD chief lalu Prasad refused that he was in touch with any JD(U) leader. “I strongly condemn this news that someone has called me three times on Saturday night and my daughter is going to be a Minister in the upcoming coalition government…it’s all frivolous and unacceptable,” said lalu Prasad.
But his party MP from Madhepura Pappu Yadav welcomed the move of an alliance between the two “secular parties”. Pappu Yadav has defeated JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav from Madhepura lok Sabha seat. Meanwhile, three rebel RJD MlAs Samrat Chaudhury, Ram lacuna Ram Raman and Zaved Iqbal Ansari resigned from Assembly to extend their support to Nitish Kumar. These three MlAs, along with six others, had unsuccessfully tried to defect to the JD(U ) two months ago.
During the day, names of senior JD(U) leaders like Bijendra Yadva, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Vijay Chaudhury, Narendra Singh and Damodar Raut did the rounds as the successor to Nitish, but all of them refuted such possibility and reposed their faith in Nitish Kumar’s leadership.
“Except Nitish Kumar no one will be accepted as the party leader…only he can lead us and the party MlAs are being elected only in his name,” said Narendra Singh.
Meanwhile, State Congress president Ashok Chaudhury said that his party would continue supporting the Nitish Government. But, a delegation of State BJP leaders met Governor DY Patil and apprised him about the political development taking place in the State. The delegation comprised senior State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, State BJP chief Mangal Pandey, Nand Kishore Yadav, Sunil Kumar Pintu and Prem Ranjan Patel.
The BJP leaders earlier on Saturday had described resignation of Nitish Kumar as “political drama”. “He once again will be elected as party’s leader and become the Chief Minister,” said Modi. His party colleague and MP from Nawada Giriraj Singh said that Nitish Kumar “changes colour faster than a chameleon”.
The political observers of the state, however, described Nitish Kumar’s move as a “master stroke and smart move to score three points. Through this, he decimated the ever growing dissension in the party and also checkmated the BJP whose leaders have been claiming to have support of at least 50 JD(U) MlAs. Thirdly, he received massive public sympathy and was able to deflect attention from JD(U)’s dismal performance in the polls.