Bihar chief minister and JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar’s triumphalism about spreading Bihar’s glory far and wide faced uneasy political obstacles on Saturday as both his ruling ally BJP and the Opposition parties flayed his apparently prompt obedience of MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s diktats.
While Mr Kumar flew to Mumbai amid unusual signs of depleting enthusiasm and increased security arrangements for Sunday’s celebrations of Bihar’s centenary there, his telephonic conversation with Thackeray a day before was criticised as an act that compromised Bihar’s honour. Thackeray’s phone call to Kumar, facilitated by a JD(U) leader in charge of the celebrations in Mumbai, and Kumar’s apparent readiness to comply with Thackeray’s twin conditions were openly questioned by the ruling BJP and the main Opposition RJD.
“There was absolutely no need for him (Kumar) to take an NOC (no-objection certificate). This conversation should not have taken place,” said BJP Bihar president and former union health minister C.P. Thakur. Visibly upset, Mr Thakur was of the view that a CM should not have taken “permission” from a regional party boss. BJP sources said the national party’s leaders were feeling increasingly edgy about the Bihar centenary celebrations outside Bihar focusing mainly on Kumar and the JD(U) with little mention of the BJP’s partnership. The JD(U)’s open wishes to project Mr Kumar as the next PM candidate have so far met with an anxious silence from Bihar’s wary BJP leaders. Mr Kumar’s subtle efforts to raise feelings of a Bihari sub-nationalism among the state’s people were hit hard by the RJD’s allegations that he displayed “humiliating submission to Raj Thackeray” by agreeing to the latter’s conditions.