As the assembly elections are around the corner in the state of Bihar, the leaders of the various parties that had together come to form the NDA alliance in the state including the BJP and the JDU are looking quite confident about their victory and are claiming that they will come to power at least with a two-thirds majority. This statements are proof of the fact that the coalition is extremely sure of its political win in the state and knows that it will again be declared the choice of the people.
But what comes as a blow to the illusion of deeply-embedded unity among all the leaders of the NDA alliance is the fact that recently the Lok Janshakti Party(LJP) took action against one of its leaders who had gone ahead and made an objectionable statement before the media.
This suggests that not all is as perfect as it looks about the coalition’s internal understanding. The LJP leader in question is Raghavendra Bharti, who was the district president in Munger and has now been removed form his post because he allegedly told the media that “the NDA is unbreakable.”
It looks like LJP has not yet decided on its terms of joining the NDA. Bharti was subsequently summoned to Delhi on July 3 and asked to make clarifications to party chief Chirag Paswan and was warned by him to not speak about the alliance in public in the future.
Political analysts feel that there is some sort of a discomfort between LPJ leaders about whole heartedly joining the NDA, as they seek a bigger share in the NDA in Bihar and are probably not satisfied with what other powerful members of the coalition like BJP and JD(U) are willing to allow them.
Recently, Home Minister Amit Shah clarified that contrary to speculations and distorted information, the Bihar elections would be fought with Nitish Kumar as the CM candidate. This clearly shows that for the BJP, JDU is far more important that the LJP.
While many political analysts are looking at the LPJ’s action against Bharti as an attempt to get a more important place in the NDA, it is quite difficult to say that to what extent it will benefit the party.
The LJP demands over 42 seats in the Bihar Assembly elections. Giving more seats to the LJP may be risky for the NDA , because then it will mean that the BJP and JDU will have to take a seat cut for themselves and they are not willing to do that.The JDU doesn’t want the LPJ to be given more importance in the NDA, and perhaps that is why the LJP feels uncomfortable with the alliance.
