New Delhi: With Bihar CM Nitish Kumar keeping up pressure on Lalu Prasad for the resignation of his son Tejashwi, deep fissures have appeared within the JD(U) as well as alliance partner Congress even as the deadline for the deputy CM to quit ended on Saturday night.
A section in both parties wants to expose Kumar’s double game, while another is keen on keeping the JD(U) chief in good humour in order to keep the Mahagathbandhan alive. Senior JD(U) leader and the party's Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav is leading the charge against Kumar. Opposed to aligning with the BJP in any manner, he has indicated that in case his party chief decides to go with the saffron party, he would quit.
The chief minister has made it clear to the RJD that there is no alternative to either convincing the public about Tejashwi Yadav's innocence or him exiting the government. The deputy chief minister is facing corruption charges.
Lalu Prasad has refused to make his son step down just because the CBI had named him in a corruption case. The Yadavs insist that it is an outcome of the BJP’s “vendetta politics”.
Kumar, who harbours prime ministerial ambitions despite his recent denials, has been giving mixed signals by his actions. While he supported NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, he chose to back the Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
Sources told this newspaper that a sizeable number of leaders in the JD(U) say that aligning with the BJP would be suicidal for the party and want to continue the grand alliance by backing the beleaguered RJD chief.
This section says that Lalu Prasad and his party have the backing of the crucial 30 per cent Muslim-Yadav votebank which the JD(U) cannot ignore. The BJP, on the other hand, has its eyes on the formidable maha dalit votebank which is nearly 50 per cent and is the core of the JD(U)’s support base.
Similar differences have emerged within the Congress as well, with a section wanting to side with the Yadavs while the other, led by Bihar PCC chief Ashok Choudhary, is in favour of keeping Kumar in good humour.
Highly placed sources in the Congress said that it was the Bihar unit which had arranged for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to call Kumar and ensure his support for Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
A senior Congress leader said that the mood in the party was to expose Kumar and tarnish his image. “He is very image conscious. Only by targeting his secular or otherwise image, can we keep this alliance intact,” he said.
JD(U) sources said that Sharad Yadav is so miffed with his party president that he has indicated that in case Kumar veers towards the BJP, he would quit.
Meanwhile, plans are afoot that in case Tejashwi Yadav is forced to quit, all other RJD ministers will also resign and the party will support the government from outside.
“This will pre-empt any attempt by the BJP to provide outside support to the Kumar led government as well as keep the alliance afloat,” sources said.
Kumar and Yadav have called meetings of their party's lawmakers in Patna on Sunday, separately, to prep their lawmakers for Monday's presidential polls.
