Nitish, George lock horn over Bihar, Laloo smiles

The Samata crisis climaxes a continuous simmering of differences between Fernandes and Nitish and this time the bone of contention is Bihar unit chief Raghunath Jha, MP. Jha belongs to the Fernandes faction and Nitish who doesn’t see eye to eye with him wants him removed.

The two factions have been making a series of moves that seek to undercut each other. The supporters of Fernandes, who is also NDA convenor, sought to undermine Nitish’s importance in Bihar by not inviting him to the January 2 meeting of the alliance to discuss the agitation to be launched against the Rabri Devi government.

The Nitish faction refused to take the snub lying down. His supporters were especially miffed because Nitish happens to be the NDA convenor at the state level and for him to be left out of the decision-making process was entirely unpalatable to them.

The reprisal from the anti-Fernandes faction came from one of the party’s general secretaries who announced that P K Sinha, the party spokesman in the state, would no longer hold the post. Both Fernandes through national party spokesman Shambu Srivastava and Raghunath Jha himself decried the move and promptly asserted that Sinha would indeed stay put.

Now the Nitish faction has convened a executive committee meeting on January 19 where things are expected to reach their natural conclusion in case a rapprochement is not arrived at between the two warring groups.

But despite all the brinkmanship indulged in by both the groups, party sources today exuded the confidence that the differences would be sorted out and that the party would stay in one piece. There is a realisation among the saner elements in the party that a split would only help Laloo on the one hand and the BJP on the other.

‘‘A weakened Samata will mean that much of the Opposition space in the state would be appropriated by the BJP. This is something which we should guard against,’’ the sources said.

Interestingly, Fernandes would also stand to lose out in case the differences in the party reach a point of no return. Political circles say the Defence Minister may find it difficult to enter the Lok Sabha next time round without the help of the Nitish faction.

There is talk that Fernandes may even opt out of a contest in Bihar and instead seek election from his native Karnataka. He has been making repeated trips to several places in Karnataka over the last few months.