With green signal from Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish set to return as Bihar CM

Highly placed sources told The Indian Express  on Tuesday that JD(U) president Sharad Yadav met Lalu to discuss the issue last week. The RJD chief told him that it was for the JD(U) to choose the leader of its legislature party. He made it clear to Sharad Yadav that he came forward to keep the JD(U) government afloat in order to foil the attempt of “communal forces” to destabilise it after the Lok Sabha polls. Now, if the JD(U) chose to reinstate Nitish as the chief minister, he had no objection.

Though the JD(U) had last year propped up Manjhi as the chief minister because of Lalu’s sense of discomfort in backing Nitish, the situation has undergone a sea-change since then. Nitish and Lalu have been able to put their past mutual bitterness behind and forge a working relationship over the past seven months. Also, Manjhi, by making some pro-Narendra Modi noises, had put off the RJD chief even if he had endeared himself to the BJP in the process. Obviously, Lalu, given his staunch opposition to the BJP, could not back someone who was soft on Modi.

The sources said that after taking the first logical step — of securing Lalu’s approval — Sharad Yadav is set to now go to Patna and persuade Manjhi to facilitate a smooth change. Manjhi already seems to have got an idea of what is coming and has, therefore, started publicly posturing himself accordingly.

On Monday, he said that notwithstanding the fact that he was in favour of a Dalit succeeding him, he was duty-bound to back Nitish’s candidature. He said, “I have no knowledge if Nitish Kumar wants to come back (as CM)… If JD(U) legislature party chooses him as the leader, I will propose his name for CM.”

Earlier, Manjhi was snubbed by Lalu, who had said in response to his recurrent statement of “next CM should also be a Dalit”, that “it is the people who will decide the next CM”.

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Opinion within the JD(U) was divided over the leadership change, but Manjhi’s controversial statements and the Delhi Assembly election scenario had motivated the party to sit up, close its ranks and undertake a course correction fast.

A senior party leader said the one lesson, which had emerged from the national capital, was that it took the projection of a credible and inspiring chief ministerial candidate to enhance the appeal of a party among voters. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been able to revive its fortunes primarily because of the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal. Therefore, the consensus among all potential JD(U) candidates was that their prospects would start looking up once Nitish was brought back at the helm — the earlier the better.

The sources said the leadership change may take place after the declaration of the Delhi Assembly election results and most probably before the Bihar assembly Budget session, which is scheduled to begin in the last week of this month.

Though Nitish has not spoken publicly against Manjhi’s functioning, he has, of late, started asserting his position in the party more aggressively than ever before. “He has been meeting leaders of several wings of the party in name of training session… It will culminate into a show of strength with an expected presence of over 1.5 lakh booth level workers at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan. This will tell Manjhi who is the real boss and around whom party workers rally,” said a Nitish aide.