Bihar: Have RSS top brass advised BJP to patch-up with Nitish Kumar?

Patna: If politics is the art of possibilities, Bihar’s should count as the best example of it. In a fresh development, the RSS is believed to have suggested that the BJP go for rapprochement with Nitish Kumar if it wants to perform well in the assembly elections in the state. Reports in a section of the media, which could not be independently confirmed by Firstpost, suggest that the advice from the RSS leaders came at a meeting at the Delhi residence of former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari on Monday. Top Sangh leaders like Suresh Bhayyaji Joshi, organisation’s second-in-command, Krishna Gopal and Suresh Soni attended the meet. [caption id=“attachment_2173563” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] The suggestion of friendship with someone who treated the party with utter disdain, first by kicking it out of the government and then by launching a bitter campaign against its mascot Narendra Modi, might sound odd, but the RSS appears to be responding to the signal from the voters in the state. The stories that emerged out of the meeting said it is worried about the shrinking appeal of Modi and the sharp erosion of goodwill the party enjoyed only eight months ago. After the disastrous results in Delhi, where the party ended up with only three seats despite Modi lending weight to the campaign, the Sangh feels, the overall voter mood has changed drastically. And it might get worse. Thus the best bet is to keep Nitish in good humour. The indication of a thaw in the relationship between the Bihar chief minister and the BJP’s top leadership has been in the air for sometime now. Last month, during his visit to Delhi to attend the wedding ceremony of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Raj Laxmi at Hotel Ashoka, Nitish had a meeting with Modi in the late hours. Both were captured on camera engrossed in a serious conversation. The meeting took place on 26 February. The very next day, Nitish rushed to the residence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, his old friend, and had dinner with him after a brief meeting to discuss Bihar’s finances. He is set to meet Prime Minister Modi on 26 March on the sidelines of his meeting with some chief ministers over the Ganga. Reports said Nitish has sought appointment with Modi for a separate meeting with him, shedding his inhibitions. The fact that the BJP didn’t go the whole hog after promising to back former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in his show of strength against Nitish points towards some kind of change in equations in Bihar politics. After announcing the coming together of the erstwhile Janata Parivar and the eventual merger of JD(U) and the RJD, both Nitish and Lalu appear wary of taking it forward. Both have been holding separate programmes in the state to strengthen their separate vote bases. This was seen earlier this month when Nitish observed a fast whereas Lalu held a protest march to Raj Bhawan to oppose Centre’s Land Acquisition Bill. Moreover, Lalu and his party have now been publicly attacking Nitish over various issues, such as his government’s confession regarding its inability to curb cheating in matriculation examination, Nitish’s move to scrap 34 populist decisions of previous Jitan Ram Manjhi government and alleged raw deal to RJD workers by the present government. A section of political observers feel the ‘Nitish-BJP patch-up rumour’ could be a part of the RSS strategy to cause a split in the relationship which has already started looking lacking in harmonious. According to them, the RSS used similar tricks to cause split between Nitish and Manjhi who now has formed his own front. “Perhaps, the BJP strategists feel fighting Nitish alone could be more electorally fruitful than fighting Nitish-Lalu together,” said a political expert. However, the BJP unit in the state is not prepared to buy that RSS gave any such message to the party. It has called the reports in the media “hypothetical and fictitious”. “There is no question of going with Nitish Kumar. Currently, there is a strong public anger against him across the state. In the past 22 months since he broke the alliance with the BJP, the state has become a total mess. Development has come to a grinding halt while law and order situation has totally collapsed. Also, his image has been dented after he joined hands with the man held responsible for bringing ‘Jungle Raj’ in Bihar. Will such a patch-up be helpful for us?” asked senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav who is Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly. “Dosti karane se aur nuksan hoga (We are bound to suffer more if we chose to join hands with Nitish),” explained Yadav. Another senior BJP leader and party’s chief spokesperson Vinod Narayan Jha too made similar observations. “First, the question is hypothetical. Secondly, why should we go with the number Two party in the state? Moreover, it was Nitish who dumped us,” said Jha. He added for the first time since independence, the BJP had emerged as the number one party in Bihar and was getting huge support from the masses. “There is no question of going with Nitish,” he declared. Nitish, too, has rejected the RSS suggestion saying “Iski koi gunjaish to hai nahin (There is no such possibility anymore)”. But the ongoing developments indicate something could be cooking in Bihar’s politics.