Patna: Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi, who was once a close friend of CM Nitish Kumar, believes that the real reason JD(U) broke the state alliance with the BJP was “Nitish’s failed popularity, There was another growing national ambition. Desire to gain political power”.
Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) on Tuesday severed ties with the BJP in Bihar and joined hands with the RJD, triggering a revival of the grand alliance, which has the support of seven parties and 164 MLAs in the 243-member Assembly. Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the eighth term on Wednesday.th Time as deputy of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
“Nitish calculated that forging an alliance with the RJD would give him more seats in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections thus protecting his ground. This is the reason behind their separation,” Modi told ThePrint in an interview.
He further alleged that “the main objective of the JD(U) was to break the RJD in future” and that Nitish was “unpredictable and unstable”.
“CBI has filed” charge sheet In the IRCTC scam in which Tejashwi has been named on the complaint of (JD(U) National President) Lalan Singh. Singh plans that the JD(U) will easily break the RJD once Tejashwi goes to jail. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family in land scams”.
The corruption allegations against the RJD were one of the grounds on which the JD(U) terminated ties with the erstwhile Mahagathbandhan or Mahagathbandhan (of which the RJD was a part) in Bihar in 2017, and the BJP-led party for 2020. Partnered with NDA. State elections.
Asked whether the BJP was caught sleeping while Nitish broke the alliance, Modi said: “Nitish showed no sign of unrest in the alliance during a call with (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah. We were sure till the last minute that he would not turn his back. Today he is saying that we humiliated him but in reality he betrayed the mandate.
He further said that “it is not true that BJP did not try to save the alliance”.
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‘No one can read Nitish’s mind’
Sushil Modi was one of the architects of the BJP-JD(U) alliance, which went smoothly 17 years During the Vajpayee-Advani era.
“It is very difficult to read Nitish’s mind. He is unpredictable even to those close to him,” Modi said, adding that Kumar had resigned as Bihar CM in 2014, then made Jitan Ram Manjhi chief minister after the Lok Sabha election defeat that year. He later ousted Manjhi to become chief minister again, then broke ties with ally BJP in 2013 before the 2015 state elections.
“He again joined hands with BJP in 2017. Now his party has again broken ties with BJP and has partnered with RJD. This shows that he is unpredictable,” Modi explained.
According to Modi, ‘Bihar was passing through a golden phase during 2005-2010 under Nitish Kumar’s government. Nitish did a great job. But after 2013 (when Narendra Modi was announced as NDA’s PM candidate), Nitish was beginning to believe that ‘if (former Gujarat CM) Narendra Modi can become PM, why can’t I?’
Modi, who was the Finance Minister of Bihar from 2005 to 2013, said that after 2015, the path of development of Bihar started declining.
“As finance minister, I felt Nitish’s earlier tenure was very different from the next. Why would an industry invest in a state when there is a constant change in policy and volatility? “It doesn’t take him (Nitish) even two minutes to break ties with one party and stitch another alliance,” Modi asked.
Modi further said that he believes that “Nitish’s move was taken with care. He knows that there is an anti-incumbency wave against him for 20 years. In the 2020 state elections, his party was Reduced Up to 43 seats. With the BJP, he knows he cannot fulfill his national ambition.
‘Lalu knows Nitish better than us’
After the break-up of BJP and JD(U), both alleged why and how their alliance ended.
The JD(U) has alleged that the BJP was trying to sabotage the party through former Union minister RCP Singh, who had recently left the JD(U), and that top BJP leaders were involved in the operation. A claim that the BJP has rejected. The party has instead accused Nitish Kumar of “betraying the coalition religion”.
RCP Singh is believed to have been in touch with several JD(U) MLAs and there was a possibility of a JD(U) breakup of the party like the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
To this Modi said, “RCP Singh is just an excuse. When the Janata Party split in 1980, the same allegations were leveled. RCP Singh was a trusted ally of Nitish who also made him the party president. RCP has been made a scapegoat. Why did Nitish wait for so long and run the government with the BJP, if he understood the party’s intention?
Asked whether the BJP was looking at disbanding the JD(U), as it has reportedly done with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Modi denied the allegation. “If the BJP had split the JD(U), government formation in Bihar would not have been possible as we have only 77 MLAs,” he said.
On JD(U)’s new alliance partner RJD, Modi said: “Lalu knows Nitish better than us because he has spent more time with him. They (JD(U)) have implicated Lalu’s family in five cases, but RJD is wary of Nitish’s intentions.
According to Modi, with allegations of corruption against the RJD, “it will be very difficult for Nitish to run the alliance for a long time”. “This alliance is bad for Bihar,” he said.
When asked how the BJP will compensate Nitish’s Extreme Backward Caste (EBC) votebank in 2024, Modi said: “The 2024 Lok Sabha election will be in the name of Narendra Modi. BJP will formulate a strategy. PM Modi has as much influence among EBCs as Nitish has. Also, there is a huge difference between BJP of 2014 and BJP of 2022. Our party has wide spread among all castes.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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