JD (U) will not split, but Sharad may meet George's fate

Amid much wide media speculation of an imminent split in the Janata Dal (United), former party president and Rajya Sabha member Sharad Yadav arrived in Bihar to read the pulse of the people. Sharad, who is on a three-day visit to the State, has expressed his unhappiness over Nitish’s “unilateral decision” to snap ties with the RJD and the Congress, and form another Government with the support of BJP-led NDA.

Thursday was an eye-opener for the veteran parliamentarian when he landed at the Patna airport. Not one JD (U) MLA, MLC or any MP came to either receive him or express solidarity with the former party president who has been nursing grudges against Bihar Chief Minister ever since he was replaced as JD (U) president by Nitish.

Sharad, who lost 2014 Lok Sabha polls at the hands of a Bahubali (muscleman-turned-politician) Pappu Yadav (now expelled from RJD) from Madhepura, was never a mass leader. A Socialist from Jabalpur (in Madhya Pradesh), who won a bypoll in 1974 after completing his engineering, Sharad had to depend on leaders like Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar to enter the Parliament in the post-Mandal era.

When Sharad lost the last LS poll three years back, he was JD (U) national president and, therefore, Nitish accommodated him in Rajya Sabha to salvage his image, given his seniority and respectability within the party.

But now that Sharad has raised a bogey of revolt against Nitish, the veteran parliamentarian runs the risk of being isolated and eventually thrown out of the JD (U) much like his predecessor George Fernandes.

George, who too turned a rebel after being mentor of Nitish since Samata Party days, was replaced by Sharad as the JD (U) chief. George was even denied Lok Sabha ticket in 2009 from Muzaffarpur, his bastion (from where he won three times since 1977), reportedly at the behest of Nitish whose writ runs in the party ever since Samata Party merged with the JD (U). Humiliated and isolated, George contested as an Independent but lost the deposit in his fiefdom.

Sharad too is likely to meet the same fate if he continues to spew venom against Nitish. “The JD (U) has nothing to do with Sharad Yadav, who is on a personal visit to Bihar. Let him gauge the public mood. The man, who has made Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi and Misa Bharti as his icons, should also explain why he quit when he was charged in Hawala scam,” the JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar, considered a close Nitish aide, was unsparing in his attack on Sharad.

Sources in the JD (U) argue that to split the party, which has 71 MLAs, one needs to have the support of at least 48 MLAs. “Forget 48 legislators, not even one MLA was there at Patna airport to receive Sharad ji. Of the two leaders Ramai Ram and Ram Badan Rai, who were present there, one lost the 2015 Assembly polls, while the other has no connection with the JD (U),” said Neeraj.

Sharad, who is touring Sonepur and will visit Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi in the next couple of days, would escape any disciplinary action till he does not attack Nitish personally. The day he defies this ‘unwritten rule’, his fate would be sealed. And this could happen on or before the JD (U) national executive meets in Patna on August 19.