Post Delhi rout, BJP treads carefully, adopts a cautious approach for Bihar polls - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Last Sunday, February 15, saw Delhi's and some of India's who's who at the wedding reception of Jay Shah, BJP president Amit Shah's son. Senior BJP leaders from Bihar were keeping an anxious watch as to whether or not Bihar CM Jiten Ram Manjhi would attend. He didn't, saving BJP leaders some awkward questions.

The Bihar BJP ministers were clear, when asked, about the party's strategy - get Manjhi to get a caste voting bloc away from JD (U) but play safe so that BJP doesn't look like propping up a lame duck government in Patna.

In fact, as a BJP Union minister from Bihar, a leader known to have been a Narendra Modi loyalist long before the latter emerged as the top leader, put it - the "spectacle of Nitish and Lalu trying to govern for a few months gives BJP an advantage".

This minister points to Shahabuddin (convicted former MP of RJD) "holding darbars in Siwan, quite in the manner he used to when Lalu Prasad was in power.

If Nitish Kumar's government comes back with Yadav's support this will tell the people that it's back to gundaraj". "For us, it would be of more political value to show Nitish as someone who has turned the good governance agenda on its head just for political points," the Bihar BJP senior says.

Post its Delhi rout at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party, this is BJP's new Bihar strategy, call it an aam strategy. Stick to the knitting, which in Bihar's case means get the caste math right, don't get accused of adventurism, and let the opposition do damage to itself.

Manjhi has had to adjust to this new Bihar plan by BJP, senior leaders said. On Sunday, Manjhi consulted BJP leaders, party seniors said, and he was given the same message. "Break the party if you want to, but don't count on our support on the floor of the Assembly," said a senior leader. Manjhi has instead being encouraged to form another party and join NDA.

BJP's plans had changed even before Delhi results were out, since the top brass was readying for a possible adverse verdict. In their talks with the Bihar CM just before Delhi poll results were known, top BJP leaders had told him the national party could not be seen as either helping him break JD(U) or supporting another government.

Another senior BJP leader who had then negotiated with Manjhi said the Bihar CM's plans were nebulous. BJP weren't sure if he had the support of everyone he claimed. And, crucially, this leader said, "even our own MLAs are not in favour of early elections".

The Delhi rout firmed up this cautious approach even more. Bihar BJP leaders who had hotfooted to the capital the weekend before Delhi results had a meeting in Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh's house.

A BJP leader present at that meeting said the meeting had recalibrated the strategy. "The Delhi loss has given a psychological boost to the opposition, there is no real change on the ground and caste equations, but the index of opposition unity going up is always a time to act carefully," this leader said.

For mer Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain, who's from Bihar, was asked to state the party line a day after the Delhi polls. "The BJP would now only reveal its cards on the floor of the House," he said. BJP hopes what it sees as contradictions in the Nitish-Lalu alliance will play in its favour. "Nitish has been hoping for the Janata merger to be announced early, Lalu is holding back. The cadre of both parties hate each other, therefore the more delayed it gets the better it is for us," said a senior Bihar BJP leader and Union minister.