Fresh trouble for Nitish Kumar as ally refuses to contest Legislative Council poll

The VIP, which is a new ally in the BJP-led NDA, has taken umbrage at the BJP’s offer to VIP chief to contest Legislative Council poll with a truncated term

Three days after the BJP asked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to adopt Yogi model to check crime in Bihar, another alliance partner – the VIP - appears to be all set to embarrass Nitish.

The Vikas-sheel Insaan Party (VIP), which is a new ally in the BJP-led NDA, has taken umbrage at the BJP’s offer to VIP chief Mukesh Sahni to contest the Legislative Council poll with a truncated term.

Sahni, who lost the Assembly polls in November last year, was made Animal Husbandry Minister in the Nitish regime as the VIP, with four MLAs, has been supporting the NDA Government in Bihar. However, since Sahni is not a member of either of the two House, he has to be elected as a legislator within the stipulated six months time frame.

Recently, there were two vacancies in the Legislative Council after Sushil Modi and Vinod Narayan Jha (both from the BJP) resigned as MLC. While Jha was elected as MLA, Modi was made Rajya Sabha member last month. Mukesh Sahni was offered one MLC seat, with the truncated term (which expires in 2022). The other MLC seat was given to former Union Minister and BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.

While Shahnawaz, the sole Muslim face of the BJP in Bihar, showed no inhibitions in accepting the MLC offer, Sahni has reportedly put his foot down and wants a Legislative Council membership with a full six years term.

“Mukesh Sahni will not file his nomination papers for the Legislative Council polls,” said VIP spokesperson Rajeev Mishra, dropping ample hints that the VIP chief was not happy with the MLC offer which had merely 18 months of term left.

Earlier, Sahni was wooed by Tejashwi Yadav too soon after the Bihar Assembly poll result, with an offer of Deputy Chief Ministership. But Sahni preferred to stick with the NDA as the VIP had entered into an electoral pact with the BJP and thus, became one of the NDA allies, and later a minister in the Nitish Cabinet.