With the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national leadership advising its Bihar unit to remain neutral in the February 20 trust vote in the Assembly, Nitish Kumar, who was elected Janata Dal (United) Legislature Party leader on February 7, looks set to return as the Chief Minister.
Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, on his part, returned empty-handed from Delhi, but tried to put a brave face on the developments.
He went into a huddle with rebel Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Pappu Yadav and former Rajya Sabha member Shabir Ali at his official residence in Patna on Tuesday.
BJP finds it expedient to keep its distance from Manjhi
Former Rajya Sabha MP Shabir Ali declared the situation would “change dramatically within 24 hours” and that the Manjhi government would sail through in the floor test. Another Manjhi loyalist, Independent MLA Vinay Bihari, too, claimed that several RJD and JD(U) MLAs were in touch with him.
The confidence in the Nitish Kumar camp grew on Tuesday, after it was informally told by a senior BJP leader in Delhi that his party had no intention of backing the rump headed by Mr. Manjhi.
This followed a high-level RSS-BJP meeting in Delhi on Monday that decided it would be politically more expedient for the BJP's State unit to maintain its distance from Mr. Manjhi.
Present at the meeting were RSS sarkaryavah (joint general secretary) Krishna Gopal, who handles the crucial responsibility of coordination with the BJP, and BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal.
Former Deputy CM and Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had met party president Amit Shah and general secretary in-charge of Bihar, Bhupendra Yadav, in New Delhi to decide on the party’s floor strategy for February 20.
Later, Mr. Modi told presspersons in Delhi that the BJP was neither going to join a government nor form one, and therefore, did not figure anywhere in the defection game.
In Patna on Tuesday, he said the party would take its final decision on February 20 “on the floor of the House.”
Clearly, the Delhi Assembly election results have made the BJP cautious: it wants time to repair its public image, regroup and work towards getting its own mandate in Bihar later this year. The BJP does not want to carry the baggage of Mr. Manjhi to the elections, even if it had earlier believed that it could capitalise on his Mahadalit origins to take on the JD(U)-RJD combine in the Assembly elections.
