Sharad Yadav miffed, may quit if JDU goes with BJP

New Delhi: With Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar keeping up pressure on Lalu Prasad Yadav for the resignation of his son and state deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, deep fissures have appeared within the JD(U) as well as alliance partner Congress. 

A section in both parties wants to expose Mr Kumar’s double game, while another is keen on keeping the JD(U) chief in good humour in order to keep the Mahagathbandhan alive. Senior JD(U) leader and the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav is leading the charge against Mr Kumar. Opposed to aligning with the BJP in any manner, he has indicated that in case his party chief decides to go with the saffron party, he would quit.  

On Saturday, he met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. According to agency reports, the two leaders discussed the prevailing political situation in the state during the near 40-minute-long meeting at her residence.

The chief minister has made it clear to the RJD that there is no alternative to either convincing the public about Tejashwi Yadav’s innocence or him exiting the government. The deputy chief minister has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case. 

Lalu Prasad Yadav has refused to make his son step down, insisting that the case is an outcome of the BJP’s “vendetta politics”.

Mr Kumar, who harbours prime ministerial ambitions despite his recent denials, has been giving mixed signals by his actions. While he supported NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, he chose to back the Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Sources told this newspaper that a sizeable number of leaders in the JD(U) say that aligning with the BJP would be suicidal for the party. They want to stick with the grand alliance by backing the beleaguered RJD chief. 

This section says that Lalu Prasad Yadav and his party have the backing of the crucial 30 per cent Muslim-Yadav votebank which the JD(U) cannot ignore. The BJP, on the other hand, has its eyes on the formidable maha dalit votebank which is nearly 50 per cent and is the core of the JD(U)’s support base.

Similar differences have emerged within the Congress as well, with a section wanting to side with the Yadavs while the other, led by Bihar PCC chief Ashok Choudhary, is in favour of keeping Mr Kumar in good humour. 

Highly placed sources in the Congress said that it was the Bihar unit which had arranged for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to call Mr Kumar and ensure his support for Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

A senior Congress leader said that the mood in the party was to expose Mr Kumar and tarnish his image. “He is very image conscious. Only by targeting his secular or otherwise image, can we keep this alliance intact,” he said. 

JD(U) sources said that Mr Sharad Yadav is so miffed with his party president that he has indicated that in case Mr Kumar veers towards the BJP, he would quit. 

Meanwhile, plans are afoot that in case Tejashwi Yadav is forced to quit, all other RJD ministers will also resign and the party will support the government from outside.  

“This will pre-empt any attempt by the BJP to provide outside support to the Mr Kumar led government as well as keep the alliance afloat,” sources said.

Mr Kumar and Mr Yadav have called meetings of their party’s lawmakers in Patna on Sunday, separately, to prep their lawmakers for Monday’s presidential polls. The two leaders are also expected to discuss the ongoing rift in the Bihar’s ruling coalition.