BY MANOJ PATHAK
The Bihar Assembly election is witnessing different shades of politics as the same parties are allies at one place and opponents at another.
The Lok Janashakti Party which is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre seems miffed with the leadership of JD-U supremo and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar. On the other hand, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is enjoying the perks of power in Jharkhand in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morch (JMM) but was reluctant to give seats to the JMM candidates in Bihar.
In such a situation, the LJP, the Janata Dal (United), the RJD and the JMM are facing off in Bihar.
In Jharkhand, the only winning candidate of the RJD was included in the Cabinet. But in the Bihar elections, the RJD apparently could not stomach the JMM’s alliance and the JMM announced to go solo in the polls.
JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said the party cannot compromise on its honour. He added that the RJD was doing political manipulation, against which the party was forced to speak out.
Bhattacharya asked what was the status of the RJD in Jharkhand? Its poll symbol, the lantern, was flickering in Jharkhand only due to the JMM. Also, the JMM had given the RJD more than its due share of seats in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha pollls.
He said that the JMM won in Jharkhand through its hard work and struggle and the victory was not a gift to it.
The party has decided to field candidates from Jhajha, Chakai, Katoriya, Dhamdaha, Manihari, Pirpaiti and Nathnagar in Bihar.
The LJP is in more or less the same situation. LJP chief Chirag Paswan likes the NDA at the Centre, but chose not to ally with it for the Bihar elections. He announced putting up candidates against NDA partner, the JD-U.
At the Centre, former LJP president Ramvilas Paswan is a minister. LJP chief Chirag also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is his ideal and he has learned to struggle from him, but still decided not to go with the NDA in Bihar.
The NDA is contesting the Bihar elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
In a joint press conference of the NDA on Tuesday, BJP leaders made it clear that those who do not like the leadership of Nitish Kumar in Bihar cannot be with the NDA.
Now it is up to the voters how they like this ‘friends here and opponents there’ game.
Manoj Pathak can be contacted at manoj.p@ians .in)
