Is Bihar the missing piece in the 2019 election jigsaw puzzle?
For anyone war-gaming the 2019 battle plans in the anti-bjp front, it’s clear that they still need to push for a Mahagatbandhan 2.0. Otherwise, they leave a bloc of 56 seats wide open for Amit Shah’s Mission 400. In Jharkhand, the consolidation of a united Opposition showed benefits in the bypolls in Silli and Gomia which were retained by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha; the non-bjp parties did not field candidates so the anti-bjp vote remained undivided.
The weak link in the chain is Bihar where Nitish Kumar has started making discernible murmurs against the BJP just a year after he abandoned his alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav. But Lalu’s son Tejaswi is almost more dismissive of Nitish than he is of Modi. He told me that there is no way they can work with “Chacha Paltu” again. But beyond the rhetoric, word is that the Congress has privately conceded that Bihar could create a crucial shortfall in the Opposition’s calculations. Kumar, who is driving a hard bargain in seat-sharing negotiations with Amit Shah, is said to be open to the idea of a ‘ghar wapsi.’ Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is believed to have been approached to work on making the RJD amenable to the idea.
The next big move on the political chessboard may be played in Bihar. Look out for it.
Barkha Dutt is an awardwinning journalist and author The views expressed are personal