Replace Local BJP Leadership with 'Parachute' Leaders: Modi-Shah's Ambitious Bihar Plan
Patna: After taking oath, the newly-elected BJP lawmakers queued up to touch the feet of Sushil Kumar Modi when the bicameral Bihar legislature assembled for the first time after the elections on Monday.
Stripped off his long-held position as the deputy chief minister, Sushil has been nominated as the president of the ethics committee of the legislative council – a prestigious position that Nitish Kumar held after he demitted office as the chief minister to make way for Jitan Ram Manjhi in 2013. The legislators gathered around Sushil in his new chamber allotted to him in the premises of the legislative council.
Also read: The Loneliness of Sushil Kumar Modi
The happenings give the impression that what’s going on is expected: Sushil has been the BJP's poster boy for over 30 years and the newly-elected lawmakers are paying obeisance to their leader who has built the party over the years.
Sushil Kumar Modi at an election rally during the Bihar state assembly elections 2020. Photo: Facebook/ Sushil Kumar Modi
But a closer look revealed that the exuberance was missing in the BJP’s camp. Newly-elected lawmakers are known to get chirpy while attending the first sessions of the House after hard-fought elections. “Why do they look like a crowd of mourners,” asked an elderly employee of the House.
Drama
Perhaps, the dramatic manner in which the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led new-order of BJP substituted Sushil with the little known Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi as deputy chief ministers has not sunk in yet.
At the end of the day, the emails of journalists were flooded with pictures of Tarkishore. But Tarkishore, who has replaced Sushil as the BJP legislature party leader, is also in a proverbial corner, perhaps yet to be recognised by the new BJP legislators.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar exchanges greetings with his deputies Renu Devi and Tarkishore Prasad after the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhawan in Patna, November 16, 2020. Photo: PTI
While Sushil was as usual affable with media persons, he was tight tipped on the affairs in his party. This writer was looking for someone who would offer clues on who will be the speaker of the assembly, who is scheduled to be elected on Wednesday. Also, whom will the BJP send to the Rajya Sabha in place of Ram Vilas Paswan who passed away last month.
Also read: The Alacrity of Sushil Modi's Removal Doesn't Bode Well for BJP in Bihar
Local newspapers, TV channels, and digital platforms were agog with the speculation that the BJP, which has 74 MLAs, would snatch away the speaker’s post from Nitish Kumar’s weakened JD(U) with 43 MLAs. It was also speculated that the BJP could appoint its senior MLA Nandkishore Yadav as the speaker. However, the BJP leadership stunned Bihar's political circles again by nominating Vijay Sinha, an MLA from Lakhisarai, for the Speaker's post.
Word also has it that the BJP leadership will send the party veteran Sushil to Rajya Sabha to ‘compensate’ for his removal from the deputy chief minister position.
“What I can say with authority is they are wild guesses. Nobody except Amit Shah can tell you about these things,” confided a senior BJP MLA, who has socialist roots, like Yashwant Sinha, the late Sushma Swaraj and others who reached the top positions in the party from non-RSS backgrounds.
The MLA, who is known for his proximity to Nitish, Sushil and defence minister Rajnath Singh, spoke on the “operations” of the new-order BJP under Modi-Shah’s stewardship.
‘Don-like’ operations
The MLA said that Shah who knows Modi’s mind had set in motion the process to weaken the collective hold of Nitish and Sushil on Bihar NDA well ahead of the assembly elections. He used his new loyalist and junior in the Union home ministry Nityanand Rai – an MP from Ujiarpur with many criminal cases against him – and Rajasthan's Bhupendra Yadav, to work with Lok Janshakti party chief Chirag Paswan to damage the prospects of Nitish.
A file photo of Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai.
Shah did so to achieve three goals:
1) To weaken Nitish and eventually dump him,
2) Replace Sushil and his associates from the ‘moderate’ Vajpayee-Advani era with Nityanand and others loyal to Moditva,
3) Make inroads into the mighty Lalu Prasad’s Yadav vote bank.
Also read: The Numbers Hide a Political Churning in Bihar
The Yadavs are over 15% of the Bihar voters, constituting the ‘nucleus’ of Lalu’s support base. Nityanand is an Yadav who fit into the Modi-Shah scheme of things to eventually capture power in Bihar.
Of late, Amit Shah is taking and executing decisions which only Narendra Modi knows, said the MLA. It is a sharp departure from the democratic process that the BJP adopted during Vajpayee-Advani era. As per the tradition, the BJP parliamentary board gets the lists from respective state boards and discusses them. Of course, the supreme leaders, Vajpayee and Advani, had the “last say” but the parliamentary board members, Yashwant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu, and many others, differed with them and put forth their points of view forcefully in internal meetings. The state leaders used to get a clue about what transpired in the apex body’s meeting because the proceedings were carried out in a democratic manner.
A different BJP
Now things are different, said the MLA. The parliamentary board members sign on the names chosen by Shah and Modi. This became obvious when Rajnath Singh, a BJP parliamentary board member, came down to Bihar to replace Sushil with two deputy chief ministers.
Soon after the results, the party high command had called Sushil to New Delhi. Sushil was asked through Rajnath to accept Nityanand as Nitish’s deputy. He refused as Nityanand had damaged the NDA by propping up Chirag. Fearing a rebellion from Sushil, Shah – who had once failed to get an appointment with an all-powerful Sushil in the 1990s – allowed him to have his pick of deputy chief ministers. Sushil proposed two who have grown under his tutelage.
Limitations
The BJP has succeeded in breaking the combination of Nitish and Sushil and also strengthened its hold on Bihar but it has serious limitations too.
Nityanand might be close to the top but that will never be sufficient to pin down Lalu Prasad.
Lalu Prasad Yadav. Photo: Facebook/Lalu Prasad Yadav
Moreover, Lalu has got his son Tejashwi Yadav who led the RJD and made it emerge as the single largest party. He is a mass leader in his own right.
Lalu and his legacy are too big for Nityanand, who is still small in stature in comparison to Nitish and Sushil too.
Also read: Why Lalu Prasad's Popularity Is Still a Factor in the Bihar Elections
The BJP has its share of stalwarts who have played a big role in its growth, like Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan.
It will be foolish for observers to speculate that Nityanand would emerge similarly in Bihar. The road is not quite easy.
Nalin Verma is a senior journalist and author of Gopalganj to Raisina, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s autobiography. He has also authored The Greatest Folk Tales of Bihar.
This article went live on November twenty-fourth, two thousand twenty, at thirty-nine minutes past ten at night.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
