Bihar BJP to remain in Opposition

Party refuses to clarify on supporting embattled Chief Minister Manjhi

The BJP on Monday said it would remain in the opposition chair irrespective of the outcome of Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s floor test in the Bihar Assembly on Friday.

The BJP’s move indicates that it is walking on the margins since it would not like to be seen as going too far with Manjhi ahead of Assembly polls. The JD(U) has already accused the NDA lead party of using Manjhi as a puppet for destabilising the government. The saffron party, however, cannot back out after hobnobbing with the Mahadalit leader.
“We will stay in the opposition for the next six months,” Bihar BJP senior leader Sushil Modi told reporters here.

Officially, the party is refusing to clarify whether it would support or oppose confidence motion against Manjhi, who has been expelled from his party.

Till date, the BJP has been maintaining that it would take a decision on the floor of the House as per the situation and it has nothing to do with the present crisis which is JD(U)’s internal matter.

An alternative before the BJP, said party sources, is that the MLAs might walk out during trust vote since they would not like to be seen taking Manjhi’s side to give evidence to the charge of scripting rebel CM’s game plan.  The BJP leaders expect something dramatic on that day since Bihar Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary deferred a meeting of parties to Wednesday to decide seating arrangements in the House for seeking trust vote.
Sushil Modi suspected that the JD(U) wants to be seated in the opposition side of the House which he described as strange since the former NDA ally is in power.

A senior BJP leader said there can be several possibilities depending on Manjhi’s actions. One of them is that he might resign before the trust vote in case he fails to lure MLAs from JD(U) and RJD as his former mentor Nitish Kumar did in 2000. Another is that he faces and loses the trust vote. And finally, the CM wins it as he claimed on Monday.
Manjhi alleged that Nitish’s camp was trying to “frighten MLAs” by spreading rumours that he was “conspiring” with the BJP to bring President’s Rule in Bihar. He accused Nitish of parading “bogus” MLAs.

BJP sources said even if Manjhi wins the floor test, he would not be able to run the government for another six months.

Sushil Modi said his party was keeping an eye on the situation and has called a legislature party meeting on Wednesday to discuss the next course of action. He did not outrightly deny the possibility of Manjhi later joining the BJP. He said Manjhi has not given any application and now even Nitish Kumar can join the party by just dialing a number.