Patna: In an indication that JD(U) will insist on Nitish Kumar to continue as the face of NDA in the 2020 Bihar assembly polls, a couple of posters supporting him have already appeared in the city.
The posters with the message 'Kyon karen vichar, theeke to hai Nitish Kumar' (why think of anyone else when Nitish Kumar is just fine for us) and a large picture of the smiling Bihar chief minister have been put up outside the JD(U) state headquarters here since Sunday.
Older banners with slogans - 'Bihar mein bahaar hai Nitishe Kumar hai' (Bihar is blooming, seeks only Nitish Kumar) put up for the 2015 assembly polls and 'Sacha Hai Acha Hai Chalo Nitish Ke Saath Chalo' (He is honest and good, let us go with Nitish) coined ahead of the Lok Sabha polls can be spotted alongside the latest poster.
"It is a sentiment expressed by the common people of Bihar and not just JD(U). The opposition is forewarned that there is no vacancy for the chief minister's post in 2020," party spokesman Sanjay Singh asserted.
Notably, the assertion of Kumar's indispensability comes in the backdrop of JD(U)'s membership drive aimed at further strengthening the party in a state it has ruled for over a decade but remained devoid of organisational depth. The BJP, formerly a junior alliance partner which has acquired an overbearing presence under the aggressive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, reacted to the development with caution.
"Every political party is free to spread its ideological wings and pass on a message to its supporters. NDA is a united force and well placed in Bihar," BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said in a statement.
Significantly, their two-decades-old ties notwithstanding, ideology has remained a major bone of contention between the BJP and the JD(U). The two parties have not been on the same page on contentious issues like triple talaq, NRC, Ayodhya and Article 370.
Ideological differences had led Kumar to part ways with BJP in 2013, which cost his party dearly in the Lok Sabha elections the following year and did the same to BJP in the 2015 assembly polls. Nikhil Anand also said, "The poster on Nitish Kumarji is a message to the Grand Alliance, in which there is a tug of war among the allies over the naming of the chief ministerial candidate.
"The chaos and confusion in the Grand Alliance suggests that it may fall short of the number that they may require to be recognized as the main opposition group after the 2020 polls," he said. Led by Lalu Prasad's RJD and comprising the Congress, besides three marginal players, the Grand Alliance seems to be sharply divided over declaring Tejashwi Yadav the chief ministerial candidate.
RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha had made his reservations clear about RJD supremo's younger son leading the coalition shortly after he quit the NDA and joined the Grand Alliance in December last year. Yadav had been declared as RJD's chief ministerial candidate at a party convention in 2017 where Prasad, now serving sentences in fodder scam cases, was himself present.
After the Lok Sabha polls in which the RJD drew a blank, the party's clout within the coalition has declined sharply. Matters were made worse by Yadav's prolonged absence from active politics and his refusal to attend the recent month-long assembly session despite being the leader of the opposition.
Recently, Grand Alliance partner HAM's founding president Jitan Ram Manjhi called the young leader "inexperienced" and declared that he was ready to become the chief minister if the coalition won the elections next year.
Congress, which has been an RJD ally for close to two decades, has sought to distance itself from the leadership row terming it as "premature". Meanwhile, RJD MLA Bhai Virendra, a Tejashwi Yadav loyalist, claimed that "theeke hai (in the JD(U) poster) also means he (Kumar) is just okay".
"This comes from a party which has always spoken of its leader in superlative terms. It is an acknowledgement of the fact that the ground is slipping from under their (JD(U)'s) feet, he added.
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