Bihar’s ruling allies, JD(U) and BJP, may be slowly moving towards yet another coalition friction that is in the making after a disgruntled JD(U) MP shot off a letter to BJP national president Nitin Gadkari alleging about “corrupt practices” in two departments in the Bihar government under the charge of BJP ministers.
In a step seen as an effort to bypass and undermine the authority of chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar, the party’s influential MP from Muzaffarpur, Jai Narayan Prasad Nishad, sought Mr Gadkari’s intervention in what he portrayed in his recent letter as “corrupt practices” in the departments of animal and fish resources and cooperatives. Mr Nishad, who also requested Mr Gadkari to get his allegations verified by using the RSS network, apparently had little faith that the state government will take any corrective steps.
While the BJP’s Giriraj Singh holds the animal and fish resources department, the cooperatives department has been under the charge of deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP since the party’s Ramadhar Singh was forced to resign in May following revelations of quietly remaining a proclaimed absconder from the courts for 16 years.
Mr Nishad, whose significant political weight foiled Mr Kumar’s recent efforts to impose the JD(U)’s disciplinary action on him for severe anti-party activities during the 2010 Assembly polls, has taken up the cause of Bihar’s fishermen and apprised Mr Gadkari of alleged manipulation by government officials with the two ministers’ permission to effectively prevent about 22 lakh fishermen from benefiting from a law enacted for their welfare. Mr Nishad himself belongs to the fishermen’s caste and has the support of the entire community in Bihar.
Despite growing bitterness in both the JD(U) and the BJP over Mr Nishad’s letter, the two parties’ leaders are currently averse to making any statement about it. JD(U) national general secretary and chief spokesman Shivanand Tiwari on Monday said Mr Nishad’s choice of writing to “the president of another party when the chief minister belongs to his party” was improper and inexplicable.
In March, when the JD(U) suspended four MPs for anti-party activities, let off Mr Nishad though he had got Congress tickets for his two of his relatives in the 2010 Assembly polls and even openly asked for votes for the Congress.