JD-U split over Women’s Bill

The issue,however,has given Nitish’s detractors an opportunity to flex their muscles. Lok Sabha MP Lalan Singh — who earlier accused Nitish of running the party in an “autocratic” manner and quit as Bihar president — charged the Chief Minister of changing his stand according to his post.

“As an MP he had opposed the Bill in writing. Now as Chief Minister he is supporting it. Does the stand of a person change according to his post?” asked Singh,claiming that a majority of party MPs were against the Bill. Asked if Nitish’s opinion would weigh over the party,Singh remarked: “He is the Chief Minister and not the parliamentary party leader. We will take his view into consideration during the parliamentary party meeting.”

Throughout the day,hectic efforts were on from Nitish’s side to get all MPs to support the Bill. He even spoke to Sharad Yadav and tried to impress upon him to change his stand. Sources said Nitish tried to reason that the Bill would be passed even if they opposed. With Bihar going to the polls later this year Nitish feels that opposing the Bill would send a message that he was against upper caste women. Further,he was also said to have argued that the profile of a constituency determines the caste of the winnable candidate.

However,the worrying factor for the JD-U is that most of its upper caste MPs too are against the Bill. Three of its four upper caste Lok Sabha MPs when contacted opposed the Bill. They were also angry that Nitish hadn’t consulted them. “We learnt from the newspaper that Nitishji is in favour of the Bill. He should have let his view known to us too,” said one of them. Others,mostly OBCs and EBCs,are already against the Bill. But despite their opposition,most MPs might finally reconcile to Nitish’s view.

Anyway,Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed welcomed Nitish’s support and urged leaders opposing the Bill to come out in support.