Patna: The much-hyped political friendship between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of the ruling Janata Dal (United) appears to be in danger with the RJD setting a precondition in lieu of sealing the alliance deal with the latter.
The RJD, which has lent its outside support to the ruling JD-U government, has asked chief minister Kumar to get rebel leader Jitan Ram Manjhi back to the JD-U fold if the latter was interested in forming a grand alliance among scattered socialist groups. Manjhi, who was handed over the post of the chief minister in May, by his predecessor was forced to resign last fortnight to make way for Kumar. He was also expelled from the JD-U after he initially refused to resign.
“The grand alliance is not possible until Manjhi and his supporters are brought back to the JD-U fold. There is no point in going ahead with the alliance or merger plan if the prominent secular leaders stay outside the socialist camp,” RJD’s national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told the media on Tuesday, adding unification would never be complete without Manjhi.
Singh, who is considered close to RJD chief Prasad, also took potshots at Kumar for repeatedly saying that he had “corrected” his mistake by removing Manjhi as the chief minister. “He [Kumar] has done only minor ‘correction’. The entire correction will be complete only when Manjhi is brought back to the JD-U fold and offered the post of the deputy chief minister,” Singh said adding the secular camp was bound to suffer serious poll setbacks if Manjhi stayed out of their group. He asked the chief minister to take the initiate to bring back Manjhi to them without any further delay.
The fresh development has virtually cast a shadow over the fate of the 10-day-old ruling JD-U government in Bihar ahead of the March 11 confidence vote to be sought by the government on the floor of the state assembly. Significantly, the JD-U government currently survives with the support of the RJD as it does not enjoy majority in the 243-member Bihar assembly. The RJD has 24 members in the state assembly.
Another senior RJD leader and party parliamentarian Rajesh Ranjan too has launched massive attack on the chief minister, charging the latter with paying scant regard to the RJD workers although the government survives with its support. “The RJD workers are feeling discredited, disregarded and cheated due to the attitude of the chief minister. It’s time chief minister should mend his ways and pay due respect to the RJD workers,” asked Ranjan, more popular as Pappu Yadav adding the RJD workers were not supposed to waste their energy in “sprucing up” the image of the chief minister.
The reason why the RJD has suddenly lost interest in JD-U is that it has lost a huge Dalit vote-base after Manjhi’s resignation. It feels this will be only a liability for the RJD if the latter tie up with the ruling party in the present situation. Observers say Kumar’s JD-U at presently is left with barely four per cent votes of Kurmis and little support among the extremely backward castes after the exit of Manjhi who of late has emerged as the tallest leader of dalits in Bihar. Dalits account for some 23 per cent of state’s total vote-bank and that is why everyone — be it the RJD or the BJP — wants to be in the company of Manjhi. The upper castes have already dumped the JD-U the day Kumar broke alliance with the BJP.
