Even as Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar’s dismaying support to the UPA’s presidential candidate in defiance of ally BJP’s choice now seems to have paid off some dividends, many in the JD(U) are already concerned about the long-term impacts of this gambit.
The Planning Commission’s cool compliance to Kumar’s wish for Bihar’s annual plan of `28,000 crore for 2012-13, a 30 per cent rise over 2011-12, and its assurance about extending an ongoing special aid package to the state during the 12th Plan period are being viewed in Bihar’s political circles as direct and immediate gains made possible by the JD(U)’s political daring. Kumar, who persuaded the JD(U) leadership to support Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for the presidential polls, got these bounties during a meeting with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday without facing any of the reluctance shown by the plan panel last year.
But these gains, described by a senior JD(U) leader as a “short-term quid pro quo,” could prove politically harmful to the JD(U) in the long run, feel leaders in a section of the NDA’s robust regional ally ruling Bihar. “If our support to Mukherjee despite our remaining an NDA ally eventually causes, or is publicly construed as, a weakening of our strong anti-Congressism, then we will face problems in the upcoming polls,” said a senior JD(U) leader.