'BJP is yet to apply mind on backing Manjhi'

Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi tells Abhay Kumar of Deccan Herald that Nitish Kumar cannot remain out of power for too long. Excerpts:

Nitish Kumar has blamed the BJP for delay in the floor test. He has even questioned the governor’s decision related to trial of strength on February 20?

Nitish has met the President of India, the highest constitutional authority. Now that a date has been fixed for a trial of strength in the Assembly, why is he in such a tearing hurry?

His charge is that the floor test could have been done earlier by convening a special session of Bihar Vidha Sabha….
(interrupting…) The date (February 20) for convening the Budget session of the Assembly had already been announced. What’s the problem if he waits for nearly a week to show his strength? If he really has the numbers, he should not be worried one bit. By making baseless charges against those holding constitutional posts, he is making himself a laughing stock.

But his point is that the entire drama has been scripted by the BJP. The more the delay in conducting the floor test, the more is the possibility of horse-trading?

It’s a clear case of pot calling the kettle black. Nitish is the  man who split the RJD last year and made leaders like Samrat Choudhary (he was till last year RJD MLA before becoming JD-U MLC) ministers. Earlier, Nitish engineered a split in the LJP and merged the breakaway faction with the JD-U. Prior to the Lok Sabha poll, he wooed BJP MLAs and made them JD-U MLCs. The man, who is a master in horse-trading, should stop crying wolf. The problem is that there is a huge power struggle within the JD-U and for all the mess within his party, he has developed this habit of blaming the BJP.

But he has also said that the BJP will meet the same fate in Bihar as it happened in Delhi…
Nitish has this misimpression that he can be another Arvind Kejriwal. I feel that Delhi and Bihar are two different varied social, political and economic issues. People here are relatively more politically conscious. They can see through the political designs and double-speak of a leader. Nitish cannot become another Kejriwal by riding piggy-back on Lalu Prasad and the Congress. He will have to answer during election that how can he claim to establish the rule of law when he has joined hands with those forces whom he blamed for jungle raj in Bihar. He will have to be seen as ‘Mr Clean’ as Kejriwal. Kejriwal ke tarah saaf-suthra image bhi hona chahiye (He should have a clean image like Kejriwal).

How can you be so critical of a man with whom you have worked so closely since 1996? In fact, you have been Nitish’s deputy from
November 2005 to June 2013…

(interrupting) I have worked with him for so many years, that’s why I know him so well. He cannot remain without power for too long. When he resigned as railway minister after the Gaisal train accident on ‘high moral’ grounds, he was quick to rejoin the Vajpayee Cabinet within a few months. Later, when he had to resign as Bihar CM in March 2000 after a week at the helm, he said he will stay in Bihar and “do State politics.” But within months, he again joined the Vajpayee Cabinet as a minister. In May, last year, when he quit (again citing high moral grounds), he said he would don the mantle of Bihar only when people would give him a fresh mandate to rule. But nine months down the line, he has realised his ‘folly’ and is now desperate to grab the CM’s chair by hook or crook.

But he is saying that the BJP created a situation due to which he had to stage a comeback.
He committed one blunder after another in the last 30 months. And still blames us for his every lapse.

What kind of blunder?

The ambitious Nitish’s first blunder was to dump the BJP in June 2013 (just because of his ego problem with Narendra Modi). Actually, he wanted to become a prime ministerial nominee of the Third Front.

Second mistake was when he quit as CM after the Lok Sabha poll. The third mistake was making Manjhi the CM hoping that the latter would be his rubber stamp. The fourth blunder was joining hands with Lalu, against whom he had fought elections and won. The mandate in November 2010 was in favour of JD-U-BJP combine and not Nitish-Lalu alliance. And the fifth mistake he is committing is trying to replace Manjhi simply because he is not signing on Nitish’s dotted lines.

But will you back Manjhi on the floor of the House or not?
Honestly speaking, we have not applied our mind on the issue. We will take an appropriate decision as and when the situation so develops.