TIME TO FIGHT CORONA, NOT POLLS: PRASHANT KISHOR TELLS NITISH
Differences brew in NDA and opposition camps in poll-bound Bihar
NEW DELHI: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor took a swipe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday, saying this is time to fight the coronavirus not elections and that he should not endanger people's
lives in a "hurry" to hold the assembly polls. "The coronavirus situation in Bihar is worsening like it is in many other states of the country. But a big part of government machinery and resources are busy making preparation for the polls. "Nitish Kumar ji, this isn't time to fight elections but the coronavirus. Don't endanger people's lives in this hurry to hold the polls," he tweeted. Kishor, once a confidant of the JD(U) president before he turned a critic and was expelled from the party, joins
leaders like LJP chief Chirag Paswan and RJD'S Tejashwi Yadav in suggesting that the Bihar assembly polls should be deferred due to the pandemic. Polls in Bihar are due in October-november.
The BJP and the JD(U) have been holding organisational meetings and said that they are ready for the elections.
On the other hand, increasingly bitter relations between the JD(U) and the LJP in the ruling National Democratic Alliance and differences in the opposition camp have thrown up possibilities of a political realignment in Bihar ahead of the assembly polls in the state. It remains uncertain if the state's fractured politics will see new alliances, but all is far from well in the two rival camps, prompting some parties to explore their options, sources have said.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is peeved with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) as it believes that its due strength in the state is not being acknowledged by the ally in seat-sharing talks among the NDA partners.
While the equation between the BJP and the LJP remains fine, Kumar's party is angry over Chirag Paswan's repeated snipes at the chief minister and hints that the saffron party should look beyond him in the state.
“The LJP is overestimating its strength in Bihar, and Chirag Paswan has become more and more ambitious. It was never an ally of the JD(U). It has aligned with the BJP on and off, and the saffron party will deal with its demands, not us,” a senior JD(U) leader said. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan's party, now being led by his son Chirag, had fought on 42 of the state assembly's 243 seats in 2015 and wants a share on similar lines in the upcoming polls, a position rejected by the JD(U). The JD(U) was in the rival camp of the RJD and the Congress in 2015.
JD(U) sources have pointed out that the LJP won only two seats in 2015, and its best show was in 2005 when the party won 29 seats while fighting on its own in the Bihar polls.
The hung verdict had led to another assembly election in a few months in which Kumar led the NDA to victory in the state for the first time, defeating Lalu Prasad's RJD.
The LJP'S tally was reduced to 10 seats. The LJP on its part has noted that even the JD(U) won only two Lok Sabha seats in 2014 but was given 17 of the total 40 seats to contest in 2019 general election after re-joining the NDA following a four-year split. Though the BJP has been working to keep its alliance partners on board, its top leaders have repeatedly put their faith in Kumar's leadership and named him as the NDA'S chief ministerial candidate.
This, political sources believe, limits the BJP'S ability to placate the LJP.
In the Rjd-led opposition, some parties have shown reluctance to project Tejashwi Yadav as the coalition's chief ministerial candidate and sought a discussion among allies.
Two other members of the opposition camp, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha and Vikassheel Insaan Party's Mukesh Sahani, have also expressed reservation over the leadership issue, signalling trouble in the opposition camp.