Bihar elections: On Yoga Day, Kushwaha tied himself and the BJP in knots

Untimely trouble with an ally on International Yoga Day in Bihar left the BJP leadership baffled. After taming its very own Ram Madhav and getting him ‘double delete’ his controversial tweets against Vice President Hamid Ansari, the party now has to contend with the rising aspirations of its Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief and Minister of State in Human Resource Development ministry, Upendra Kushwaha. [caption id=“attachment_2308732” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha.[/caption] Incidentally Kushwaha went public with his chief ministerial ambitions for Bihar on International Yoga Day when as a minister in Modi government he ought have been busy making this high profile event a success. The MoS in HRD ministry obviously had other ideas. He did practice Yoga briefly but then he went to preside over National Executive meeting of his party, RLSP and get a resolution passed which unilaterally declare him as Chief Ministerial nominee of the NDA. It did not matter to him that his party was only a minor ally of the BJP led coalition. In the 2014 Parliamentary elections, the BJP had given three seats to Kushwaha’s RLSP and he was given a junior ministerial berth in the Modi government. Kushwaha believes that he and his social support base, Koeris played a king makers role for Modi, so far as getting number of seats from Bihar and it was time that he became the king or at least portrayed as the one by the NDA for the coming elections in Bihar. He wants to contest 67 seats and hold his party conclaves in 125 seats out of a total of 243 seats of Bihar assembly. It all happened on a day when Amit Shah was in Patna to hold strategy sessions with Bihar unit party colleagues and participate in party organised Yoga Day event, which incidentally had two Muslim girls in the lead role. He deliberated over the developments with other senior leaders in the state. The party leaders are so far tight lipped on what transpired in the core group meeting. Shah is known for his tough handling of negotiations with allies, something which had been amply manifested in Maharastra and Haryana – preferring to break the alliance rather than bend for it. It would be interesting to see how he handles Bihar. He had earlier met the two NDA allies from Bihar, Ram Vilas Paswan and Kushwaha. He kept himself away from further negotiations and left the task onto the state unit. “It is the state unit in Patna which will take a call on issues related with seat sharing with alliance partners. The decision on whether or not to have a chief ministerial candidate will be taken by the BJP Parliamentary Board”, a senior party leader said. Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party had earlier made it clear that it will have no objection to whosoever BJP chooses to be chief minister candidate from its rank, pre or post poll. Kushwaha has however, added to the twist. The BJP leaders are very unhappy with Kushwaha’s public declaration and while they officially maintained that every party has a right to voice its aspirations. But privately they minced no words in expressing their displeasure. “We can’t really understand what made him announce himself as chief ministerial candidate of the NDA. The BJP obviously is not going to oblige him or succumb to his bargaining tactic, at least the way he trying to play it. The current dispensation of the BJP under leadership of Modi and Shah is very clear in its intent and purposes. It will be for him to decide his future course of action. In his own wisdom he has decided to play by fire. Will he part ways with NDA if his demands are not met. He would jeopardise his ministerial status if he does that,” a source told Firstpost. Kushwaha has, perhaps, laid bare his ambitions a bit too early. He has neither the stature nor the organisational base to force a bargain on Modi and Shah. His supporters go on talking endlessly as to how support of Koeris, Kushwaha own caste had been critical in making NDA a success story on several occasions in the past. The BJP leaders realise that they support was indeed important but add that young voters are guided more by the aspirations for development than just by narrow simplistic caste considerations. Whatever may be the final outcome, Kushwaha has raised a politically contentious point for the BJP which will haunt the party in the coming months.