Grand Alliance Turns Table on Rudderless NDA Ship Struggling for a Captain

Patna: While Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday (October 23) declared the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD's) Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the chief ministerial face of the Grand Alliance and Mukesh Sahni of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) as the deputy chief minister on the other hand the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appear to be a badly divided house on this count.

As Union home minister Amit Shah on October 16 asserted that the decision in this regard would be taken by the newly elected legislators of the Bihar NDA after the assembly election, three days later another senior BJP leader R.K. Singh, who was till June 2024 a respected member of the Narendra Modi cabinet, dropped a bombshell by publicly appealing to the voters to defeat deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary as serious criminal and corruption charges are pending against him. R.K. Singh’s Diwali-eve statement made on social media kicked up storm as Samrat – who was the state unit president of the saffron party till a year ago – is being groomed as the chief ministerial face by a strong lobby within the party.

Also read: Reclaiming Ground for Democracy in Bihar: Lessons From Markadwadi

R.K. Singh also called upon the electorate to reject a couple of opposition candidates too, what came as a shock is that he publicly questioned how Vibha Devi, the wife of rape accused Raj Ballabh Yadav not only got ticket from Nawada, but shared dais with Prime Minister Modi, who felicitated her when he visited Gaya on August 22. R.K. Singh also urged the people of Bihar to vote against all the criminal and corrupt contestants including Anant Singh, a Bhumihar strongman and close confidant of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Anant is contesting from Mokamah seat of Patna district on Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] ticket. 

R.K. Singh made special mention of how, as a young district magistrate of Patna in 1984, he took action against Anant and his two brothers, who were considered the terror of the Tal (riverine) belt of Bihar. He also narrated how as the home secretary of the state he had ordered the district magistrate of Nalanda to arrest another Bhumihar terror, Suraj Bhan Singh, who had a long association with the JD(U) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, a few days ago Suraj Bhan has joined RJD, which has given ticket to his wife Veena Devi against Anant in Mokama assembly constituency.

Media bias

The former Union electricity minister also blacklisted the names of several other NDA candidates as well as of RJD’s Osama Shahab, son of late Siwan MP, Mohammad Shahabuddin.

Although the mainstream media tried to either blackout or underplay the statement of R.K. Singh, it caused a serious damage to the NDA which has already been grappling with the Shah’s statement on CM face. A significant section of JD(U) is upset over the home minister’s remarks. They are now accusing the party’s working president Sanjay Jha, Union minister Lallan Singh and Vijay Chaudhary, a minister in the Nitish cabinet, of dancing to the tune of BJP. Incidentally, all three are from the upper castes. The non-Yadav backward castes support base of the JD(U) is suspicious of their plan to upstage Nitish.

The problem with the BJP is that there is a lack of trust within the NDA camp. No doubt, there is still a likelihood of friendly contests in a few seats within the Grand Alliance constituents, but what the mainstream media is not highlighting is the fact that many more constituencies are going to witness unfriendly or hostile contests within the ruling NDA partners.

While a sizeable section of JD(U) workers and supporters are furious over Shah’s stand, the relationship between Nitish’s party and LJP, led by Union minister Chirag Paswan is also very tense. In a number of seats, efforts are on by both the parties to weaken each other.

Little to lose for Chirag 

JD(U) rank and file have not forgotten how the LJP backstabbed their party in 2020. Therefore, it is now their turn to take revenge. The message that the BJP is not going to make Nitish chief minister again has further prompted them to settle scores with Chirag.

In such a situation the 29 LJP candidates are only pining hope on the BJP supporters. Notably, there is a good percentage of the NDA voters who vote for it only because of Nitish. Once they would get a signal that he is not likely to be made chief minister they would either shift their loyalty towards the Grand Alliance or just remain indifferent and would not turn up at the booths. In this neck and neck tussle any such development is likely to cost the NDA dearly.

So far as Chirag is concerned he has little to lose as his party has no MLA in Bihar. If the NDA fails to win, he is not going to be affected. He would continue to enjoy the status of a Union minister. The truth is that the weakening of Nitish would be in the long run good for his rise. He is young and has control over 5.31% votes of Dusadhs, the Dalit caste to which Paswan belongs. 

Also read: Tejashwi Yadav Named Opposition Alliance's CM Face, VIP Chief Mukesh Sahani Deputy CM

Apparently, R.K. Singh does not stand before Shah’s stature within the party. But when R.K. Singh attacked Samrat, he enjoyed the backing of a lobby within the Bihar BJP, who have not fully accepted Samrat.

The old guards within the BJP have not forgotten how former leader of opposition Sushil Kumar Modi had launched a fierce campaign against Samrat’s ‘forged’ birth certificate way back in 1999 when he was a minister in the RJD cabinet. The BJP forced the then chief minister Rabri Devi to drop him from her ministry.

Till 2014 Samrat was, like Ram Kripal Yadav, Shyam Rajak and Sadhu Yadav, a key figure of the same RJD. Their names appeared in several controversial incidents. Now they call the 15-year-rule of the RJD as the Jungle Raj.

Last month, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor accused Samrat of possessing fake educational certificates. He also hurled serious criminal and corruption charges against the deputy chief minister.

Also read: As INDIA Names Tejashwi as CM Face, Pressure on NDA, Yet to Declare Nitish as its Pick

With Tejashwi already in saddle, and the BJP not inclined to fully back Nitish, uncertainty grips the NDA. What is more, the saffron party itself is not in a position to promote Samrat any more. 

What has been forgotten is that Tejashwi has been anointed with the responsibility to lead the Grand Alliance on October 23, the date on which in 1990 his father Lalu Prasad Yadav as the chief minister of Bihar ordered the arrest of the then BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani in Samastipur. The Somnath to Ayodhya Ram Rath Yatra was terminated. Curiously, the district magistrate of Samastipur then was none else but R.K. Singh. Almost two decades later he became the home secretary of India. It was during his tenure that the term saffron terror was coined.

Things appear to be coming full circle. 

Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based freelance journalist.

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