Patna Durbar : Mail Today

BJP has let JD-U grow at its cost

PLAYING second fiddle comes naturally to Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) — at least in Bihar.The party which was once at the forefront of anti- Lalu Prasad and anti- Congress forces, projecting itself as a viable alternative, is now content riding piggyback on its coalition partner, Janata Dal- United ( JD- U), in the state.
From being the senior partner in a coalition for nearly a decade, BJP has gradually ceded much ground to its ally, allowing it to not only grow stronger at its own cost but also dictate terms to it like a big brother. The recent one- sided tussle between the ruling coalition partners in Bihar over seat sharing for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections is symptomatic of the rapid decline of the saffron party in the state.
The JD- U demanded and got one more seat than in the last elections without a murmur of protest from anybody in the BJP high command. Some of the state leaders did shout from their rooftops that they would not let go of any constituency from its existing quota of 16 seats. But they had to cut a sorry figure when Arun Jaitley, the party’s in- charge of Bihar affairs, announced that the BJP would fight from only 15 seats.
The JD- U leadership apparently sought more seats by impressing upon the BJP the need to win more seats if Lal Krishna Advani was to become the next prime minister. In other words, it said that BJP would fritter away its chances of forming the government at the Centre if it insisted on contesting from 16 seats in Bihar.
The state BJP leaders believe it is not a question of one seat.
For them, it makes a huge psychological difference to the balance of power within the coalition.
Consider this: In 1996, the BJP and the erstwhile Samata Party had contested from 34 and 22 seats respectively in the undivided Bihar. Since then, it has been a gradual demotion for the BJP in the coalition hierarchy.
Faced with the absence of a Bihar- based mass leader, it gave away 24 seats to JD- U and settled for only 16 seats in the 2004 elections. Its leaders said that the BJP had agreed to give away 60 per cent of seats to JDU in the general elections with the long- term objective of bringing to an end the 15- year- long regime of Lalu Prasad in Bihar.
Though their electoral arithmetic failed to pay dividends in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls when the United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) won 29 seats in Bihar, it helped the National Democratic Alliance accomplish its mission in the 2005 Assembly elections.
Lalu’s party was ousted from power and the NDA’s projected chief ministerial candidate, Nitish Kumar, took over the reins of the coalition government.
Subsequently, Nitish Kumar launched his “ Mission Development” with a vengeance and was projected as the proverbial “ Vikas Purush ( Development Man)”. But as Nitish grew stronger with each of his welfare projects, the BJP found itself getting marginalised within the coalition. Despite being a longstanding ally of the JD- U, it inexplicably allowed Nitish to walk away with all the plaudits for the performance of the coalition government.
There is no doubt that Nitish has done creditable work over the past three years but the success of his government is not the success of the JD- U alone.
The BJP has been an integral part of it as well. It is altogether a different matter that it does not realise this fact fully.

Tits Bits :-

BIHAR’S bahubali ( strongman) politician Anant Singh loves to drive his Mercedes. But the Merc is only his second love. His first preference is always a horse. Given a choice, Singh would probably ride his horse on the crowded streets of Patna.
The JD( U) MLA keeps a horse at home and shows it off to everyone. His latest acquisition is a six- monthold filly which he purchased for Rs 2.5 lakh recently.
Singh had bought Lalu Prasad’s horse Pawan through a middleman and renamed it as Rudal, a couple of years ago. Lalu reportedly did not want to sell his horse to Singh, but the latter sent a decoy customer and bid for the horse at the famous Sonepur cattle fair.
Unfortunately, the horse died recently, leaving him distraught. But he has recovered and gone on to buy a filly of the Arabian breed.
The man facing dozens of criminal cases who once brandished an AK- 56 at a public ceremony is besotted with his new acquisition.

RASHTRIYA Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad loves to hide in his favourite getaway — a huge cowshed – in Danapur these days to get away from the crowds of ticket seekers.
During his 15- year- old regime in Bihar, he had assiduously developed 1, Aney Marg — the chief ministerial bungalow in Patna — as the place where he met party workers and ticket seekers in the poll season.
But after losing the Assembly elections in 2005, Lalu had to shift to 10, Circular Road which was smaller than his previous bungalow.
Finding hundreds of ticketseekers picketing his bungalow during his last visit, Lalu recently sneaked away to his favourite “ gaushala” at Danapur to catch some moments of privacy.
But the party men followed him there. Some of them sought tickets for themselves while others wanted him to replace the old candidates from a few constituencies.
An exhausted Lalu is now looking for a new hideaway.

IF THE Social Welfare department had had its way, we would have delicacies made of rat meat served in every restaurant in Bihar by now. The department’s principal secretary Vijay Prakash first mooted the idea of how rat meat can tickle the taste buds more than chicken.
He worked on a proposal to introduce it in the market to help boost the economy of the Mushhars, the traditional rateating community. He even found ample support from his minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, who waxed eloquent on the taste of the rodent meat from his personal experience.
Unfortunately for the duo, chief minister Nitish Kumar shot down the proposal.

Courtsey : The Mail Today , Delhi