JUNE 19- Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to seek a trust vote on Wednesday after his recent split from the BJP has given the Congress an opportunity to get closer to him ahead of the next Lok Sabha election.
The stand of the Congress during the trust vote on Wednesday may well pave the way for its future ties with Nitish. The party has not divulged its strategy yet, but all its four legislators are likely to abstain from the voting to make Nitish’s task easier.
The JD-U, which has 118 legislators, needs the vote of only four more MLAs to win the confidence vote in the 243-member Assembly. On the eve of the voting, the party has already secured the support of four Independent MLAs — Pawan Kumar Jaiswal, Vinay Bihari, Dulal Chandra Goswami and Som Prakash Singh. The CPI, too, has pledged support of its lone legislator to the Nitish government. The party has also claimed support of the lone LJP legislator.
But Nitish will just scrape through with their support. The RJD has already announced that its 22 members would vote against the Nitish. Party president Lalu Prasad said that he had already given a call for change in the government at his recent Parivartan rally. The party has already issued a whip to its MLAs. The BJP is also set to vote against the government. Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that the BJP legislature party would meet at 9:00 am on Wednesday to chalk out its strategy.
All eyes are, therefore, riveted on the Congress now. One of its MLAs Tauseef Alam has already stressed the need for strengthening the hands of secular forces. After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Nitish ‘secular’, the Congress might ask its MLAs to abstain from voting. If the Congress abstains, Nitish will require the vote of only 120 MLAs.
In recent times, the Congress has been trying to win over Nitish. Political observers believe that its decision to abstain from the trust vote move may well cement its ties with Nitish ahead of the general elections.
The BJP has apparently sensed it. It has hit out at Nitish charging it with joining hands with the Congress to save his government. Sushil Modi said it was sad that Nitish was seeking help of the Congress and the Independents to save his government. “The leaders who were once symbols of anti-Congress movement over the years have surrendered to the Congress,” he said. “One such leader (Lalu) had done it before, now another leader holding a top position (Nitish) is doing it.”
BJP’s national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said that Nitish was joining hands with a party that was responsible for the 1989 Bhagalpur riots in the state. But Nitish remains unfazed. He returned the compliments of the prime minister on Tuesday saying he had only spoken the truth about his secular credentials. “One should always speak the truth and coming from the Prime Minister of the country certainly gives me comfort,” Nitish said. “I offer my heartiest thanks to him for saying so.” Meanwhile, while chances of the Nitish-Congress tie-up brightened because of the trust vote, the relationship between the JD-U and the BJP worsened with their supporters clashing violently on the streets of Patna on Tuesday.
The warring members of both the parties fought with each other during the Bihar bandh called by the BJP in protest against the unceremonious ouster of its ministers from the Nitish ministry and the JD-U decision to walk out of the NDA. Armed with batons, sticks and bricks, the rivals attacked each other.
BJP leaders alleged that the JD-U supporters had tried to assault and disrobe one of its woman leaders at its office on Birchand Patel Patel. The party’s Bihar unit president Mangal Pandey alleged that the JD-U men had taken to the streets at the behest of Nitish, a charge which was summarily dismissed by the JD-U leaders.
JD-U spokesman Rajiv Ranjan, who received in the scuffle, said that the party supporters had come out on the streets to expose the BJP. Another JD-U leader Neeraj Kumar said that the BJP had attacked his party leaders and were resorting to cheap tricks to enforce the bandh.
Sushil Modi said it was for the first time when a political party had sent its men to oppose the peaceful bandh called by another party. He said that Nitish had called upon his supporters to come out on the streets to make the bandh successful. “However, except for Patna and a few places, JD-U supporters did not come out anywhere. In fact, most of them are sad over the split,” he added.
Modi said that Nitish should see the writing on the wall. “Even the people in his home district came out in large numbers in Nitish’s home district Nalanda in support of bandh,” he said.
Party’s general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that there was no difference between Lalu and Nitish now.
Nitish, however, said that the bandh was merely a reflection of the frustration of the BJP leaders after their ouster from the government.
