LJP won’t fight Bihar under Nitish’s leadership
President of the Jan Lokshakti Party (LJP)Chirag Paswan, and son of Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, hardly misses an opportunity to attack Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar.
The latest issue picked up by him to train his guns on Nitish was the collapse of a portion of the Sattarghat bridge on river Gandak in Gopalganj district just 29 days after Nitish Kumar inaugurated it. The collapsed portion was the part of a ₹ 263.47 crore construction project.
Chirag questioned Nitish’s government’s oft-repeated phrase of “zero tolerance” against corruption. “Such incidents put a question mark on zero tolerance on corruption,” Chirag tweeted, demanding a high-level probe into the incident.
He has questioned Nitish’s handling of the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and has demanded postponement of Assembly elections against JDU’s insistence to hold it ahead of November 20 — the date of expiry of the Assembly.Chirag’s LJP is a part of the National Democratic Alliance and as such his father is a member of Narendra Modi-led cabinet.
The reason for Chirag’s attack on Nitish is said to be Nitish’s reluctance to accommodate LJP’s demand for more seats in its share for the upcoming Assembly elections and the nomination quota seats in the Bihar Legislative Council. NDA sources said that the LJP was keen to contest at least 35 to 40 out of 243 Assembly seats in light of the fact that all its six candidates who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a part of the NDA had romped home. The LJP is also said to be interested in having its due representation in 12 seats of nomination quota MLCs.
It’s naive to conclude that Chirag’s growing tirade against Nitish might lead to a rift in the NDA. The all-powerful BJP is playing the role of a ‘peacekeeper’ between its two warring allies — LJP and JDU — which might eventually settle their differences on the issue of the seats in their respective shares. Moreover, there is a cloud of uncertainty on the election itself in view of COVID-19 compounding its havoc, and all the non-JDU and non-BJP parties are clamouring for deferment of the polls.
But the significant point in Chirag’s rebellion against Nitish is that he and his father are full of praise for the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi even as they attack Nitish. A day after questioning Nitish’s honesty with construction projects, Chirag thanked the Prime Minister for the Centre sent a team of experts to Bihar to assess the Corona situation in Bihar and praised Modi for his work for the people.
