The ‘‘murder of democracy’’ in Bihar paving the way for fresh elections in the state within six months has come as a boon for two leading lights of the NDA — JD(U) leader Digvijay Singh and BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley.The NDA today decided to field Singh for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand in the June 3 election. The seat fell vacant when former deputy CM Stephen Marandi quit the Upper House after getting elected to the Assembly.BJP leaders were not willing to give up the seat despite pleas from JD(U) for some time. However, the Bihar developments made them change their mind.The BJP, keen to put up a united front with JD(U) under the leadership of Nitish Kumar in the coming polls, did not want to ruffle JD(U) feathers over the Jharkhand seat. Besides, BJP can now gain concessions in seat-sharing arrangement in Bihar for giving up the RS seat for Singh, sources said.NDA convenor George Fernandes is believed to have pleaded with the BJP leadership repeatedly that the seat be given to his loyalist but the request finally worked because of the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly.As for Arun Jaitley, there is a glint in his eye and spring in his step since yesterday.Jaitley, who was in charge of the February polls in Bihar and was credited with smoothening ‘‘ground-level’’ ties with senior partner JD(U), has already resumed his role as election manager.His profile had dimmed of late, especially after he was divested of charge of the troops for Assam Assembly polls and was given Tamil Nadu instead.While party leaders maintained that he was given charge of TN and Pondicherry because the state units wanted an ‘‘English-speaking’’ leader, fact remained that the two southern states were fairly marginal in the BJP’s scheme of things.But now that Bihar will go to the polls well before the elections in Assam and TN, Jaitley once again has a ‘‘meaty beat’’ to chew on, sources said.Jaitley may go to Bihar as early as this week and will make frequent trips to the state in the coming months, sources said. He will visit TN ‘‘only once a month till October’’ and focus on Bihar, the sources added.
