Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 17: The relations between the two allies in Bihar, the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) seems to be reaching a flashpoint. After the senior partner rebuffed the JD(U) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections refusing to recognize it as an alliance partner, it has now warned the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s party to “stay within limits.”
The BJP has also threatened he JD(U) leadership that if it failed to “stay within limits,” the BJP workers in Bihar would reply. “Stay within limits or 76 lakh BJP workers in Bihar will reply,” the Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said.
Ever since the Bihar Assembly elections last year when the BJP emerged the dominant partner winning many more seats than the JD(U) and yet the BJP high command decided to stay on as a junior partner continuing Nitish Kumar as the chief minister, the local BJP leaders were unhappy. It reached a new flashpoint over a very minor issue, the JD(U) leadership requesting the prime minister Narendra Modi to withdraw Padma Shri awarded to noted playwright Daya Prakash Sinha over his derogatory comments on King Ashoka.
Jaiswal in a long Facebook post warned the JD(U) leaders against “playing Twitter-Twitter with” Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The JDU’s national president Rajiv Ranjan and parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha had recently written to Modi on the Daya Sinha issue on which Jaiswal has filed an FIR against the writer for drawing a parallel between Ashoka and Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.
But Jaiswal questioned the JD(U) leaders why, instead of arresting Sinha, Nitish Kumar’s party leaders were asking for the award to be withdrawn – something that he said had never happened before. “Why do these leaders keep tagging me and the central leadership and question us? We all have to stay within our limits in the alliance. It cannot be one-sided anymore. The first condition of this limit is that you cannot play Twitter Twitter with the country’s PM. If you do that and raise questions, then 76 lakh BJP workers in Bihar can give a fitting answer. I am sure you will be careful in future,” Jaiswal posted.
“There can’t be anything more nonsensical then asking PM to take back the awards,” he said. Stating that the allies could sit together and thrash out differences, Jaiswal wrote: “We don’t want that the Chief Minister’s residence once again becomes a hub of killings, kidnapping and extortion like it was before 2005.”
Shocked at the heat of Jaiswal’s attack on the JD(U) leadership, Upendra Kushwaha, responding to the sharp message, said: “We will not back down on our demand and will continue till the award is withdrawn.” Only on Saturday, the BJP had turned down the JD(U)’s offer to contest the UP Assembly elections as alliance partners as in Bihar forcing the Bihar ally to decide to contest the polls on its own.
Meanwhile, in another poll-bound state of Goa, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, former Congress MLA from Curtorim in south Goa, wished to return to the mother organisation a day after he quit the Trinamool Congress which he had joined last month. Lourenco said he had faced “unbelievable” backlash from people in his constituency and he did not want to carry this “sin.”
“I hurt a lot of people due to my decision (taken) because of wrong judgement. I made a mistake and I say sorry,” Lourenco said with folded hands. “The people who trusted me felt hurt. I say sorry from the bottom of my heart.” He said he was carried away by the TMC’s promise of a “new dawn”. The TMC’s catchphrase in Goa is “Goenchi Navi Sakal (Goa’s new dawn)”.
When I took this decision (to join the TMC), I hurt a lot of people – my friends, well-wishers, my family, my close friends. We took this decision in the interest of my people because I was promised a new dawn. I thought there will be changes in the system… I thought this will be in the interest of our people. But there was so much backlash! People started asking why are you bringing an outside party (to Goa), why are you splitting votes, you will help someone else gain, why are you doing this… then I felt I have to rethink,” Lourenco said on Monday.
After his exit, AICC Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had tweeted, “People who do things selfishly and betray trust will face the consequences… If he could lie and cheat us, I’m sure the voters of Curtorim will teach him a befitting lesson. Congress is undeterred and unfazed.”
Lourenco was named as the candidate from Curtorim in south Goa in the first list of candidates issued by the Congress in December. While, he was earlier in talks with the AAP, the Congress had also placated him by making him the working president of the party to retain him in the party-fold. However, he had still left the Congress to join the TMC in December.
In another development, the Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has appealed to the non-BJP parties to support former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar if he contests next month’s Goa election. Raut said that would be a “true tribute” to the BJP veteran. The BJP only on Sunday had attacked the Aam Aadmi Party for wooing Utpal to contest on the AAP ticket.
Utpal Parrikar, who is in his father’s party BJP, is reportedly upset over hints that the party plans to field former minister Atanasio “Babush” Monserrate from Panaji, the seat held by Manohar Parrikar for 25 years. He has talked about contesting as an independent candidate, if it comes to that.
“If Utpal Parrikar contests Independent from Panaji seat, I propose all non-BJP parties including Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, Trinamool Congress and Goa Forward Party should support his candidature and not field a candidate against him. This will be a true tribute to ManoharBhai!,” Sanjay Raut tweeted this morning. Last week, Utpal Parrikar hit out at the BJP leadership in Goa and said he would not accept his father’s seat going to someone with a criminal record.
“The kind of politics that is happening in Goa, I cannot tolerate it. It is not acceptable to me. Are they suggesting that only winnability is the criteria (and that) integrity doesn’t matter? Character doesn’t matter? And you are going to give the ticket to a person who has criminal antecedents and we have to sit home quietly?” Utpal Parrikar told reporters.
“This is not only about Panaji. What is happening in Goa politics is not acceptable. It has to change. Which is what I am trying,” he had said. Parrikar was reacting to the comments of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.
“Manohar Parrikar did a lot of work to establish the BJP in Goa. But nobody gets a ticket in the BJP just because they are the son of Manohar Parrikar or some leader. If they have worked, they are considered. I cannot take a decision regarding this. Only our parliamentary board can take this decision,” Fadnavis had said on Utpal Parrikar.
Manohar Parrikar, a three-time Goa Chief Minister and the BJP’s top leader in the seaside state, died in office in 2019. He held the Panaji constituency for five terms. In the byelection, Babush Monserrate won as a Congress candidate but later, he switched to the BJP.
