What’s cooking? Iftar signals new equations in Bihar

Is Bihar heading for a major political upheaval?

Seems so, as in an interesting turn of events, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met his predecessor Jitan Ram Manjhi twice in the last 24 hours.

Nothing wrong in it if a CM meets an ex-CM. Particularly if it’s an Iftar party. But eyebrows were raised and lensmen fell over each other to capture the moment when Nitish hugged Manjhi at the latter’s residence. After all, till last month, both of them were baying for each other’s blood during the Lok Sabha campaign.

In political parlance, this was Nitish’s uncharacteristic style as he is not known to ‘forgive and forget’ so easily.

Berth pangs

However, ever since Narendra Modi tried to cut Nitish to size by offering him just one ministerial berth in the Union Cabinet, the JD (U) strongman has been giving ample hint of a new emerging equation in Bihar. Tongues started wagging when JD (U) and BJP held separate Iftar party but neither of the two allies attended each other’s gala affair. Paswan, playing the role of a peacemaker, did try to downplay the ‘rift in the NDA’ while hosting an Iftar party at the LJP office. However, a ‘miffed’ Nitish went an extra mile to drive down to Manjhi’s residence also and hugged him publicly.

To make matters worse for the NDA, senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh urged Nitish to return to the Grand Alliance. “Has anyone given in writing on a stamp paper that Nitish can’t return to the Mahagatbandhan?” asked Singh, who is also the vice-president of the RJD. “All those, who are inimical to the BJP, should join hands and give the saffron camp a crushing defeat during the 2020 Assembly elections,” said Singh.

The RJD national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha too echoed similar sentiments. “Politics is the art of possible. And there are no permanent friends or foes,” said Jha.

Senior political commentator Ajay Kumar, however, argued that the new equations may not emerge so soon. “Nitish knows the art of patience. A seasoned politician, he knows when he has to strike back. He will wait for an opportune moment before giving NDA the boot. Till then, he will keep everyone (in both the camps) on the tenterhooks,” the political scientist told Deccan Herald here on Tuesday.

To buttress his point, he argued Bihar politics was like a triangle where the RJD, BJP and the JD (U) were its three angles. “Whenever the two join hands, the third one gets decimated. Be it 2005 and 2010 Assembly polls (when RJD was routed) or 2015 Assembly elections (when BJP was decimated). But Nitish is key to either of the two alliances,” he averred.