Patna: Amid speculation of Union Cabinet expansion, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday returned empty-handed to Bihar after two successful eye surgeries in Delhi. He was in the national capital for eight days and unfortunately, no report of his meeting with any top leaders of BJP came to light. Even after returning to Patna, Nitish did not utter a word on politics and Union Cabinet expansion. He rather told the media that the surgery of his eyes was successful and doctors have advised him to protect it for a few days.
“The operation has been successfully done by the doctors in Delhi. After the operation, the doctor told me that I can go back to Patna. The doctors have advised me not to go in the open due to dust particles and to protect the eyes from sun rays and dust,” Nitish told reporters at Patna airport with folded hands. Nitish went through the successful cataract surgery at Delhi AIIMS last Thursday. The surgery was conducted under the supervision of Dr Jeewan Singh Titiyal a renowned ophthalmologist.
Read:| Nitish's eye surgery in Delhi is mockery of Bihar's health infrastructure
However, in the Bihar political corridor, talks are getting momentum that why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not even enquire about Nitish's well being. No top leaders of BJP even made a courtesy call to Nitish during his eight days stay in Delhi. On June 22, Nitish had gone to Delhi in a special aircraft along with Bihar water resources department minister Sanjay Jha. Nitish had declared that it was his personal visit related to eye surgery. However, in politics, there is hardly anything personal and that is the reason the question is being asked about what went wrong during his visit.
Even Nitish had categorically rejected the narrative that his Delhi visit had anything to do with the talk on Cabinet expansion.
“It is very hard to digest that nothing happened related to the Cabinet expansion and Nitish Ji kept his Delhi visit a low profile. If anything would have happened, we would have got some news but, unfortunately, our leader was in Delhi and the PM did not even inquire about his health and neither made any courtesy call to him. If not PM, the second league of BJP leaders like Amit Shah and JP Nadda would have made a call to Nitish Ji but that too did not happen,” a senior JDU leader told ETV Bharat on the condition of anonymity.
When Nitish was in Delhi, many political developments took place in the last one week and Bihar CM was very much connected to all these developments. Be it pressure politics of JDU to bargain for a seat from BJP in UP election, Chirag Paswan visiting Gujarat, speculations of Pashupati Kumar Paras' induction in the Union Cabinet and many more. However, after Nitish's return from Delhi without any outcome, it has raised a serious question that what will happen with the JDU eyeing five cabinet berths in the Union Council led by PM Modi especially after the LJP row in Bihar.
This question is more significant in the context of Chirag Paswan's allegation that on the behest of JDU, the split took place in his party by his uncle Paras. Now, Chirag has threatened to approach the court if the PM inducts his uncle in the Union Cabinet. Political observers in Bihar opined that there are several reasons due to which the communication between the PM and top leaders of the BJP did not happen this time.
Patna-based political expert Dr Sanjay Kumar said, “Earlier when Nitish Kumar used to visit Delhi there were few people who used to play the role of bridge to connect him with desired leaders. When Nitish was with Congress Ahmad Patel used to play a pivotal role in making the bridge between him and Sonia Gandhi. If there was a need for any talk with the BJP leaders, Arun Jaitley used to play the role of the bridge. Now, both these leaders have left for heavenly abode. These leaders were like a single-window system when they used to work as emissaries. I think this is one of the drawbacks Nitish must have faced during his Delhi visit. At present, there is no leader of that stature in BJP who can pass on the message to PM, Amit Shah or JP Nadda.”
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Dr Sanjay further said, “Second reason I found is that Nitish had not congratulated PM Modi when he recently completed seven years in his office. Most of the NDA partners have sent congratulatory messages to the PM except Nitish. PM must be thinking if he was not bothered about me then why should I get bothered about him. Thirdly, the reason for BJP leaders maintaining distance with Nitish in Delhi is the Chirag Paswan factor because the latter firmly believe that because of Nitish the coup took place in LJP. In the present scenario, BJP cannot afford to pinch Chirag."
"BJP wants to stick with Nitish purely on the condition of government formation in Bihar otherwise they do not have any closeness with him. The top leaders of the BJP will never like to give a message that they have surrendered in front of Nitish and that's the reason that nobody even made a courtesy visit during his eight days stay in Delhi," Dr Sanjay asserted. Interestingly, the pressure politics of Nitish on Cabinet expansion would have worked better if the five LJP MPs would have merged in JDU.
