Troubled Times

Tehlka.com reports on the boiling discontent among the BJP-JDU ruling combine.This may cause the instability in the state. At a time when the state is trying to recover from its past misrule of 15 year by RJD, it could spell disaster. Have a look.

Patna is seething with BJP MLAs’ discontent at Nitish Kumar’s refusal to expand the cabinet, and the coalition looks wobbly again. ANAND ST DAS reports


DISSIDENCE AGAINST Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is spreading in coalition ally BJP’s ranks. A sizeable chunk of BJP legislators have slammed both Nitish and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, who is also the BJP Legislature Party Leader, for the “inordinate” delay in the expansion of the state cabinet. Rajya Sabha member Kalraj Mishra, who’s in charge of the BJP’s Bihar unit, admitted to TEHELKA that there’s deep resentment among both legislators and workers. “Many MLAs are upset with the bureaucracy. Some MLAs expressed unhappiness about the delay in cabinet expansion. We are dealing with these issues in the best possible manner,” he said.

Mishra’s comments come on the heels of a closed-door meeting of the BJP’s state legislature party in Patna on February 2, where at least a dozen MLAs came out openly against both Nitish and Modi for dithering on the cabinet expansion. The meeting was held after several postponements because the BJP’s national leadership was reportedly exploring ways to deal with the mounting discontent. The day-long meeting, attended by BJP national spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy and national general secretary Hridaynath Singh, saw angry MLAs also raising the issue of corruption and the CM’s “dictatorial” style of functioning. Most vocal among them were Bhola Singh, Rameshwar Chaurasia, Rampravesh Rai, Ashok Singh, Amarendra Pratap Singh, Tarakeshwar Prasad, Subhas Singh, Krishnandan Sharma, Pramod Kumar, Ramadhar Singh and Janardan Yadav, informed party sources.

A harried Kalraj Mishra told the MLAs that the full cabinet strength should have been filled during the government formation. As the MLAs wanted him to take up their cause, Mishra had to offer repeated assurances that he would speak with Nitish on the issue. “But the MLAs were unhappy as Mishra could not give a date for ensuring the cabinet expansion,” said a legislator present at the meeting.

The government’s dragging of feet on cabinet expansion has been a simmering source of anger among JD(U) legislators as well, but Nitish has managed to keep it in check thanks to what JD(U) leaders alternately describe as his autocratic and diplomatic skills. But within the BJP, there have been at least four occasions when MLAs have spoken against Modi, who holds as many as six portfolios and has been accused of being power hungry as well as submissive.

With its 243-member Assembly, Bihar can have a maximum of 36 ministers. Of the current 27 ministers including the CM, 19 belong to the JD(U) while the remaining are from the BJP. The JD(U) has 88 MLAs and the BJP 55. As per an agreement between the two parties, five of the vacant nine ministerial berths will be given to the BJP.

SENIOR BJP leader and eight-time MLA Bhola Singh told TEHELKA: “Hardly any BJP MLA is happy today about the way the party and the government are being run. How can a party prosper when one person (Modi) unfairly keeps being projected as very capable while several other deserving people are treated like dirt?”

Most BJP leaders believe that the party is suffering because of being “too timid a number two” in the government. But Modi dismissed the sentiment. “There is no serious resentment. Cabinet expansion is the government’s prerogative and would happen when the right time comes,” he told TEHELKA. “Some MLAs’ demands are such that no government can fulfil. The party would treat as indiscipline the act of MLAs going public with their peeves,” he said. Modi also suggested that a cabinet reshuffle is more likely than an expansion, but gave no date.

BJP insiders say the expansion is being delayed because of rivalry between three factions led by Modi, state president Radhamohan Singh and NDA convener Nand Kishore Yadav. “Each of them wants his own men in the cabinet, which is why the deputy CM is not pressing for a ministry expansion,” said a senior BJP leader.

Sources said expansion wasn’t likely before the Lok Sabha polls, but the MLAs aren’t in a mood to wait. “If they think we will shout and then fall silent, they’ll be proved wrong,” said Bhola Singh, whose caustic criticism of Nitish during an NDA meeting in July 2007 had prompted the CM to offer to resign.