Anil Anand
Bihar chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar anointing himself as the president of the Janata Dal (u) was followed by two significant remarks made by him. First and foremost his assertion to cobble an alliance at the national levels to checkmate BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and secondly and a more catchy one ‘RSS mukt Bharat’ (RSS free India). The latter was a take on his more formidable opponent and Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi’s election time call for a ‘Congress mukt Bharat’ or Congress free India.
In this era of high-voltage electronic media the catchy phrases prove handy for the political parties to catch people’s imagination in the shortest possible span. The reason being that the attention span has itself been drastically decreased in this era of fast paced life, so make a dent in the public mind without wasting time and be the first, as far as possible, to do this.
But on a more serious note through his selection as the JD-u chief and subsequently two agenda setting statements Mr Kumar has catapulted himself to national political arena ahead of the next general elections. Ostensibly, he has formally assumed leadership of the party for two reasons. Being the party chief he will be in a position to directly open one-o-one contacts with leaders of other opposition parties particularly the Congress and also remain in contention to be the leader of the combine or its prime ministerial candidate if the situation arose.
Unlike his other Bihar compatriots and rivals in politics Mr Kumar is cool and calculated. He has repeatedly shown his penchant for a realistic approach in the face of an emerging situation and unlike his fellow traveller and RJD chief Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, abhorred politics of pressure tactics to extract his pound of flesh. His reference that such an alliance has to be led by Congress is not only pragmatic but also nipped in the bud the cries in the rival camp (read BJP) that the Bihar chief minister would assert himself for leadership vis-a-vis Congress.
This is certainly not to say that his proposed alliance will be a smooth sailing and that he would easily accept the Congress’ leadership in the form of Mr Rahul Gandhi. But a far cry at this juncture, when he has just assumed charge as president of JD-u, pressing his and his party’s dominant role with rest following could have aborted the trial flight.
The shrewd strategist that Mr Kumar is, he must be very well aware of the history of alliances, forming and disintegrating on leadership issues right from the heady days of Jay Prakash Narain movement that led to formation of Janata Party and its fall with in three years. The subsequent examples of National Front and United Front governments in which his then outfits were a part were also not very happy experiences. The BJP-led NDA experiment in which his Samata Party was a part proved to be different.
Actually, Mr Kumar’s dream of a Congress-led national alliance has the perfect backdrop of a successful outing in the company of the grand old party and Mr Lalu Yadav’s RJD in recently held Bihar Assembly elections. It was almost a trouble free alliance with minor irritants mostly created by the irrepressible Mr Yadav. In the ultimate scenario all three partners gained.
It is too early to gauge the size, colour and mood of the grand alliance. So far as the Congress is concerned, Mr Kumar has sent the right message to 10- Janpath recognising the party’s stature at the national levels. There is no doubt after this as to which party will lead the alliance but the question as to who would the leader of the alliance be is a vital one and might take time to resolve.
He made a rather poetic comment describing JD-u’s role in this alliance making as that of a catalyst to unite non-BJP parties. At the same time he tactically ruled himself out of the race to be the Prime Ministerial candidate. The first half of his statement can be relied upon but not the latter part. Politics changes according to situations and ruling himself out of the prime ministerial race is best suited to the situation when even the parleys on alliance formation have not begun.
His slogan of ‘Sangh mukt Bharat’ is bait offered to all the anti-BJP political parties. If Mr Kumar’s plans succeed it may act as adhesive to bind the camp. At least the Left parties, who had shunned JD-u- Congress-RJD alliance in Bihar, would certainly be tempted to make a common cause to checkmate the BJP. It could become imperative for them in order to thwart any chances of the saffron party’s growth in West Bengal and Kerala.
Under the threat of Narendra Modi led BJP’s sustained influence among the people, these political parties might close their ranks. But at some juncture Mr Kumar will have to decide the leadership issue particularly with the Congress which is grooming Mr Rahul Gandhi for the task. The other imponderable would be the participation of Samajwadi Party leader Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP supremo Ms Mayawati in the proposed alliance as they in their own respective rights consider themselves as Prime Ministerial candidates.
The strength of these two leaders to dictate terms in the national alliance formation, if they decided to become a part of it, would depend on the outcome of the 2017 UP Assembly elections. If any of them is able to prevent BJP from repeating its 2014 Lok Sabha poll performance, he or she would certainly flex muscles.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel