Before Maha, Bihar set a case for strange bedfellows

Those who are amused at the emerging new equations in Maharashtra, take a look at Bihar.

In November 2015, hours after the poll results showed that Nitish Kumar had given a crushing and decisive defeat to Narendra Modi-led BJP in the State Assembly elections, one of the first regional leaders to congratulate Bihar CM was Uddhav Thackeray.

It’s not that Uddhav and Nitish have been very close friends but defeating an unstoppable Modi, who questioned Nitish’s DNA during the election campaign, made the Sena chief congratulate Bihar Chief Minister.

More than defeating Modi, the focus was on how the two strange bedfellows – Lalu and Nitish – arch-rivals for two decades, buried their hatchet and joined hands to defeat their common foe – the BJP. The Grand Alliance had then won 178 Assembly seats out of 243 constituencies, while the BJP could scrape through in 53 seats.

But two years down the line, there was something more in store for the unholy alliances.

Nitish, who fought the BJP aggressively in 2015, dumped his alliance partners - RJD and Congress - and formed his Government in July 2017 with the same BJP against whom his candidates had won.

“In politics, there are no permanent friends or foes. It’s only a matter of convenience. Why only blame Nitish or BJP? Very few people remember that when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in 1975, most of the Opposition parties opposed it tooth and nail. However, Shiv Sena (then led by Bal Thackeray) backed Congress and Indira. Again, Shiv Sena backed Congress during Pratibha Patil’s election as President in 2007. Then again in 2012, Shiv Sena supported Congress nominee Pranab Mukherjee during the presidential poll,” pointed out noted political commentator Ajay Kumar.

To buttress his point about strange bedfellows, he dwelt at length how the BJP and JD(U) were ruling Bihar together but were contesting against each other in neighbouring Jharkhand.