Rebel leaders of Bihar’s ruling JD(U), including some dissident MPs, on Monday met and resolved to form a new party to be called Bihar Navnirman Manch with the aim of propagating the failures of chief minister and party stalwart Nitish Kumar and emerge as an alternative political force.
The development, decidedly one that poses a major potential threat to Mr Kumar’s leadership within the robust regional party, is a long-foretold culmination of the rising dissidence that had resulted in the suspension of four rebel MPs in March following a disciplinary committee’s recommendations. All the rebel leaders have been antagonistic to Mr Kumar because of what they call his “autocratic-style” leadership and blame him for the disciplinary action originally recommended for as many as 11 JD(U) MPs and nearly 200 other leaders.
Several dissident sitting and former MPs of the JD(U), along with hundreds of senior party workers, including some district and block presidents of the party, gathered at the house of former MP Arun Kumar at Ashiana Nagar to thrash out a strategy for future action.
Apart from Mr Arun Kumar, prominent among those who attended included sitting Lok Sabha member Mangni Lal Mandal, sitting Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha, former RS member Ejaz Ali, and sitting MLC Prem Kumar Mani. Complicating matters for the chief minister, the rebels conveniently lapped up the latest, politically sensitive issue of police firing on poor Muslims at Forbesganj as a convenient whip to unleash a barrage of criticism on him and the coalition government with the BJP he heads.
This issue, which has energised the Opposition parties and attracted wide censure, is expected to give the rebels’ voices against the CM some credibility and possibly even some immediate gains.