A political storm seems to be brewing in Bihar, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convening a meeting of MPs and MLAs of the Janata Dal(U) on Tuesday to discuss the situation in his party and the State following the resignation of former national president R.C.P. Singh from the party on very bitter terms.
Mr. Singh, a former Union Minister, resigned on Saturday after the JD(U) sent a notice seeking explanation on the charges of corruption levelled against him.
The announcement of the meeting is a fixed point in the fluid political situation now developing in the State with regard to the National Democratic Alliance and the relationship between the BJP and the JD(U).
Meet with Sonia
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh, aka Lalan Singh, did not react to speculation that Mr. Kumar might walk out of the alliance, though according to sources, Mr. Kumar is said to have spoken to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday evening. There was no official word on this from the Congress either.
“The Chief Minister has called the meeting of party lawmakers tomorrow [Tuesday] to know their views about the situation that has emerged in the wake of the R.C.P. episode,” Mr. Singh said.
On Sunday, however, Mr. Singh had used sharp words to describe certain “conspiracies” against the JD(U), one of them, according to him, being the Lok Janshakti Party, headed by Chirag Paswan, contesting the Bihar Assembly election alone, and becoming a vote cutter, which ultimately led to the JD(U)’s tally being reduced to 43 seats (currently 45 seats).
The JD(U) believes that it was the BJP’s covert attempt at undercutting the JD(U) numbers during the election. “There is another shadyantra (conspiracy) which we will also come out by and by,” he said, referring to Mr. R.C.P Singh.
Growing distrust
The reason for the former Union Steel Minister’s exit from the Cabinet and later from the JD(U) is seen as his growing proximity to the BJP, at the cost of the JD(U), because of which he was denied a renomination to the Rajya Sabha which made his continuation in the Union Council of Ministers untenable.
This incident and a few others before it have led to a growing distrust between the BJP and the JD(U).
Mr. Kumar skipped at least four meetings called by the Union government, including the swearing-in ceremony of President Droupadi Murmu, to signal his displeasure.
Making things interesting, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a former ally of the JD(U) and the single largest party in the Bihar Assembly, on Monday indicated that it was ready to “embrace” Mr. Kumar and his party, while the Congress, another erstwhile ally, called a meeting of its legislative party in the State.
https://epaper.thehindu.com/Home/MShareArticle?OrgId=GPPA4K2SM.1&imageview=0
No comments:
Post a Comment