Patna: The irony could not have been more pronounced. A little over four years ago, the people of Bihar handed a historic mandate to the NDA - in the 2010 assembly polls, the JD(U)-BJP combine ended up winning 206 out of the total 243 seats. Today, the mandate stands abused as the politics of the state got mired in a bizarre mix of ego clashes, caste politics and nasty politicking. As two camps in the ruling JD(U) - one headed by Nitish Kumar and the other by Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi - remain locked in a bitter power struggle, leaving the state in a constitutional crisis, ethics and any semblance of decency have gone out of the window.
The Manjhi-Nitish tussle intensified today as Manjhi was sacked as the Bihar CM. IBNLive
The political conflict continuing for the past three days in the state reached a climax on Saturday when Nitish Kumar was again elected as leader of the JD(U) legislature party shortly after Manjhi was authorized by his cabinet to dissolve the Bihar assembly at the “appropriate moment". Manjhi is yet to send his recommendation to the Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, a known BJP man, though.
“Now, I am ready to take up the functioning of the state. I will lead from the front,” declared Nitish shortly after being elected the leader of the JD(U) legislature party. He claimed he had the majority and would naturally stake claim to form the government in the state.
“I was forced to take up the challenge afresh. The kind of atmosphere being created in the state and the way the issue of governance, which was our USP, was being marginalized forced me come to the front,” announced Nitish, asking all his party legislators not to leave state headquarters for next few days.
He took back his old post barely eight months after he had resigned as chief minister, owning moral responsibility for his party defeat in the last Lok Sabha polls. “This is the height of political opportunism. Nitish Kumar had resigned citing his moral responsibility for the poll debacle. But what happened in these seven-eight months that he took up his old post?” asked senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
In a new twist to the tale, Manjhi wrote to the Governor not to “accept the decisions taken at the JD(U) legislature party meeting” describing it as “unconstitutional”. He claimed only he being the leader of the JD(U) legislature party holds the legitimate rights to call such meeting.
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All eyes are now fixed on the Raj Bhawan as to what action the governor initiates in this situation when two leaders are staking claim to power, claiming themselves as the “real” leader of legislature party. But one development that throws a hint at what is going to happen in that the Governor has accepted Manjhi’s recommendation to dismiss two ministers from his cabinet—Road Construction Minister Lalan Singh and Environment and Forest Minister Prashant Kumar Shahi, both on the forefront of “oust-Manjhi campaign” and considered very close to Nitish.
Not be cowed down, Manjhi also got his cabinet colleagues recommend the dissolution of the state assembly, although his move was rejected by majority ministers. A total of 21 ministers from Nitish camp rejected the proposal which had the backing of seven ministers, including Manjhi. The ministers from Nitish camp also wrote to the governor and President not to take cognizance of the any such recommendations coming from Manjhi.
However, the Manjhi is taking every step very cautiously and is yet to send his recommendation to the governor.However, latest reports say he has dismissed 16 more ministers from the ministry.
He opted for making recommendation for dissolution of state assembly shortly after the rapprochement efforts between him and Nitish failed earlier in the day. Reports said Manjhi had set three conditions for the patch-up: one, no re-induction of the dismissed ministers; two, expelled rebel party legislators be accepted back in the party; three, and he be allowed to continue as the chief minister. He also reportedly agreed to act on the “advice” of Nitish but his proposal was shot down.
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