Nitish’s huge day today, flanked by one Modi too many

But it’s celebration time now, and the BJP wants everyone to join in. With JD(U) leaders far too preoccupied with working out the right caste-community balance in the new government, the BJP has been given a free hand to organize the show tomorrow. And they have decided to make it a “grand NDA show” with invitations sent out to all present and former NDA chief ministers including Farooq Abdullah and Prakash Singh Badal.

Nitish Kumar is too “civilized” to make his annoyance felt on such an occasion, an NDA leader said, but ruefully added, “It’s the best parting gift we could possibly have given to Laloo.”

Laloo Prasad Yadav, who loved to boast that he would never let Narenda Modi enter Bihar as long as he was in charge, is certain to make capital of the “Hindutva icon’s” visit to Gandhi Maidan within a day of his ouster from power, JD(U) leaders fear.

Narendra Modi apart, the JD(U) is already squirming at the overwhelming presence of BJP leaders at every function of the NDA here.

At today’s joint meeting of the BJP and JD(U) legislature parties, for instance, there were only three JD(U) leaders, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav and state unit Vijyendra Yadav on the podium. They were outnumbered three times over by BJP representatives who included Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Uma Bharati, Sushil Modi, Shahnazwaz Hussain, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Ashwini Choubey, and Gopal Narain Singh.

The JD(U)’s Prabhunath Singh, Lallan Singh and Arun Kumar had to sit among the newly elected MLAs since the stage was too full of BJP luminaries.

While the JD(U) leadership did not interfere with the BJP’s choice for the post of deputy chief minister, murmurs of discontent against Sushil Modi—on account of his caste—was distinctly audible at the meeting today.

Since Sushil Modi is also an OBC (the bania caste is among the four “upwardly mobile” intermediate castes in Bihar apart from Yadav, Kurmi, and Koeri), there were fears that a “wrong message” was being sent to the electorate.

“Since Nitish Kumar is a Kurmi, the deputy chief minister should have been either from the forward castes, the extremely backward castes, or minorities,” a JD(U) worker said. That sentiment was more than shared by the supporters of Ashwini Choubey and Shahnawaz Hussain in the BJP, who were hoping that the “Brahmin” or the “Muslim” card would have worked in the favour of their leaders.

Hussain, in particular, appears to have become a great favourite with the JD(U). As the BJP’s only “Muslim” face, he campaigned extensively with Sharad Yadav in the Madhepura-Saharsa-Supaul belt where Laloo’s M-Y bastion was decisively broken.

While the JD(U) would have been happy with a Muslim deputy CM, the BJP’s upper caste base would have preferred Ashwini Choubey, sources said.

But Sushil Modi shares an excellent rapport with Nitish Kumar since their student days in the JP Movement.

Besides, he was fully backed by Arun Jaitley who is calling the shots in Bihar. As one insider sarcastically put it: “The two Modis have one other thing in common besides their beards and surnames. Arun Jaitley is behind both their success.”