Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 3: Fuming over the BJP out to wipe out the Janata Dal(United) from the north-eastern states, the party’s national chief and Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday questioned the saffron party’s “unconstitutional methods” in the dealing with the opposition parties.
Talking to media persons after a meeting of the state JD(U) executive in Patna, held a day after five of the party’s six MLAs in Manipur Assembly crossed over to the BJP on Friday, Kumar said all the six Manipur JD(U) MLAs were scheduled to come for the meet and were ready till a couple of days ago, but suddenly the merger with the BJP happened. “Is it the Constitutional way? They had all come to Bihar a few months ago. People are watching the behaviour of the BJP. What kind of an approach is this? This means they don’t want any Opposition,” he added.
Hinting that the JD(U) MLAs were “lured away” by the BJP, Kumar disagreed with his former deputy and BJP leader Sushil Modi that the JD(U) members joined the BJP because they did not like Nitish Kumar breaking away from the NDA. “When we were part of the alliance, our MLAs were given nothing. Now that we have come out of the NDA that our MLAs are given offers,” Kumar said.
Nitish Kumar said all the six Manipur MLAs had visited him in Bihar and expressed happiness over the JD(U) ditching the BJP-led NDA. “Just imagine what’s happening. How they are breaking off MLAs who won from other parties. When we were in NDA, they (BJP) gave our MLAs nothing. Now they have been won over. What is this nature? What sort of act is this? Has anything like this been happening since before? This is a new thing,” he said. He questioned the propriety and constitutionality of the alleged poaching by his former ally. Both he and JD(U) national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh claimed what happened in Manipur was due to “money power.”
Referring to prime minister Narendra Modi’s recent allegation that opposition parties were in a huddle to protect the corrupt, the JD(U) chief taunted “what BJP is doing to other parties is ‘sadachar‘ but a joint fight against its brazen use of money power is ‘bhrashtachar‘. The Prime Minister has redefined these terms.”
“If all Opposition parties join forces then the people’s mandate will be very good,” he added, in a call for a united front against the BJP.
Taunting his former chief, Sushil Modi in reference to the Manipur development commented that the JD(U) would soon collapse in Bihar also. “After Arunachal, Manipur is also JDU free. Very soon Laluji will make Bihar also JDU free,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Modi said more state units of the JD(U) would revolt in the coming days. “BJP MLAs revolted in Manipur against the decision of Nitish Kumar betraying Narendra Modi for his personal ambition and joining hands with the RJD. Blaming BJP for the split is like escaping the reality. The fact is that JD-U MLAs left their party, as they were not pleased with the decisions of Nitish Kumar,” he added.
Singh, Kumar’s close aide, asked Sushil Modi not to “daydream” and dared him that the BJP would be wiped out in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He accused the BJP of not adhering to coalition “dharma” in Arunachal Pradesh, where all seven of its MLAs have now merged with the ruling party. He accused the BJP of breaking off his party MLAs through coercion.
“Want to remind you that both in Arunachal and Manipur, JD(U) won seats by defeating @BJP4India. So don’t daydream of liberation from JD(U). Was what happened in Arunachal Pradesh because of your adherence to the alliance commitment?” he tweeted in Hindi.
In another tweet, he added, “…and once again in Manipur @BJP4India’s moral conduct is in front of everyone. You must remember that in 2015, the Prime Minister held 42 meetings, only then 53 seats could be won. In 2024, the country will be free from jumlebaajs….just wait.”
Singh said the BJP had shown its character yet again. “Even when we were allies, they did the same in Arunachal. Now, we are out of the alliance, yet they have done the same. They will only learn in 2024. They are panicky for 2024 and resorting to such tactics in every state – be it Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkhand, but people are also watching. They tried it in Bihar also, but here nothing can happen,” he added.
“It is the character of the BJP now that it doesn’t want any other party to grow on its own strength. We fought on our own and won. Like Arunachal, they have repeated it in Manipur. But the people of India are also watching it and the JD-U will use the people’s power to show them the mirror in 2024,” he said.
Speaking to reporters, Singh said the Centre’s actions in Opposition ruled states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Jharkhand show the BJP’s fear and desperation regarding 2024. “What they did in Maharashtra and MP, tried to do in Delhi, and are doing in Jharkhand now will have repercussions around the country,” he said, referring to recent action by central agencies which many have describes as political vendetta.
Asked if it could happen in Bihar as well, he said there’s politics in every vein of the state and nothing would happen here. “They were trying to do that through an agent in our party, nothing happened,” he said.
In 2020, six of the seven JD(U) legislators had joined the BJP in Arunachal Pradesh, and last week its lone MLA in the north-eastern state also crossed over to the BJP. On Friday, five of the six JD-U MLAs in Manipur joined the ruling BJP. Mohammad Nasir, MLA from Lilong seat, is the only MLA left in the JD-U, but he is also tipped to join the saffron camp.
