Bihar Deadlock? Nitish Not Ready to Play Second Fiddle to BJP

Patna: All is not well in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar after its landslide victory, as differences between incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have delayed the formation of new government in the state.

Amid preparations in full swing at Patna's Gandhi Maidan for the swearing-in ceremony of the new government, reports coming from inside the NDA camp tell a different story -- of lack of trust between the two major partners -- JD-U and BJP.

Sources in JD-U here said Nitish Kumar, who will be the next Chief Minister, is not ready to play second fiddle to BJP in the formation of the government as well as to manage and run it.

"Nitish Kumar refused to give the Speaker’s post to BJP because he made it clear that new Speaker in the Assembly will be from JD-U this time, because the Speaker’s role is going to be very important in the coming days. BJP, which has  89 MLAs, four more  than JD-U's 85 MLAs, may play a game with Nitish Kumar," said a JD-U leader on the condition of anonymity.

The JD-U leader said BJP had emerged as the single largest party for the first time in Bihar, and is more upbeat and eyeing to play ‘big brother’ but Nitish Kumar is adamant not to allow this.

"Nitish Kumar has also told top the BJP leadership that JD-U and BJP will share equal number of ministers and both will get important ministries (departments). BJP wanted more ministers and all important ministries in lieu of making him Chief Minister", he added.

The leader, a former minister, sensing the likely politics of BJP, Nitish Kumar is not only alert but is bargaining hard for the formation of the government on his terms.

A BJP leader, close to party’s top leadership, admitted that Nitish Kumar had been demanding an equal share of JD-U and BJP despite the fact that his party agreed to make him Chief Minister again despite it being the single largest party in terms of the number of seats. 

Other BJP and JD-U leaders confirmed that a deadlock
over finalisation of formation of new government was evident on Monday night itself, when the BJP top leadership invited two senior JD-U leaders, Lalan Singh and Sanjay Jha, from Patna for Delhi in a charter plane.

Sources said discussions took place late Monday night as well as on Tuesday but nothing has been finalised yet.

 Lalan Singh, who is a Union Minister and Sanjay Jha, who is the working president of JD-U are holding discussions with BJP in Delhi, sources said.

Meanwhile, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress have reportedly offered support to Nitish Kumar to form a government minus BJP. The Opposition has 35 MLAs and AIMIM has five MLAs.

Earlier, on Monday noon, r Nitish Kumar met Governor Arif Mohammad Khan at Raj Bhavan and requested him to dissolve the current Assembly on November 19, a day before the likely swearing-in ceremony of a new NDA government.
Ironically, Nitish has so far not resigned as a Chief Minister and is likely to announce his resignation on November 19 or 20.

Interestingly, the top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have maintained silence on naming Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister. A powerful section in the BJP wants to replace Nitish by its own party leader as next Chief Minister this time.

Now all eyes are on the next 24 hours for political developments. Will Nitish bow before Modi-Shah or will he be able to get what he has been demanding for his own survival and to continue as Chief Minister?