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Hours after Vijay Kumar Sinha resigned as the Bihar Assembly Speaker Wednesday, his party, the BJP, nominated him as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP), ignoring the names of its two former deputy chief ministers, Tarkishor Prasad and Renu Devi, for this position.
The BJP’s decision to pick Sinha as its legislature party leader in the Assembly is not surprising as he proved his aggression as the Speaker, especially during his tiff with Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo, Nitish Kumar, during the previous Assembly session, even though Nitish was then an ally of the BJP. Sinha’s selection clearly seems to be part of the BJP’s attempt to reach out to its core constituency of upper castes. A four-time MLA, Sinha is an upper caste Bhumihar leader from Lakhisarai.
The saffron party also nominated OBC Kushwaha leader and former minister, Samrat Choudhary, as the LoP in the Legislative Council, replacing Nawal Kishore Yadav with him in this post. Samrat is the son of former RJD leader Shakuni Choudhary, who represented Tarapur in the Assembly several times. Samrat was the panchayati raj minister in the previous Nitish Kumar-led NDA government.
Besides his profile as a Kushwaha leader, another reason for Samrat’s selection as the LoP in the state Upper House could be the point that he had been vocal against Nitish even when the latter was a partner of the BJP in the NDA coalition government. During the NDA government’s tenure, Samrat had been along with Bisfi MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur one of the few BJP leaders, who would hardly hesitate in going after even Nitish while defending their party.
In a communication, the Bihar BJP president, Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, informed the Speaker’s office about his party’s move to nominate Sinha as the LoP in the Assembly and Samrat as his counterpart in the Council. The BJP took this decision at a meeting on Tuesday. Sources said it was the party central leadership that took the final call on the matter after taking feedback from the state unit on both the leaders.
A BJP MLA said, “The party believes that only Sinha can take on Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi with his aggressive and forceful presentation of the party’s stand. The way he had defended his position as Assembly Speaker in the face of attack by CM Nitish, he got the confidence of the party high command as well as the state leadership”. Another BJP MLA added that the former leader of the BJP legislature party, Tarkishor Prasad, had “not been an effective speaker and could not have matched the Nitish-Tejashwi duo”.
Vijay Kumar Sinha is the third upper caste leader after Yashwant Sinha and Ashwini Kumar Choubey that the BJP has picked as its legislature party leader in the Bihar Assembly since 1995. The former deputy CM, Sushil Kumar Modi, an OBC leader, was its legislature party leader during 2005-2013 and 2017-2020.
CM Nitish has been widely considered as the principal leader of the OBC Koeri-Kurmi communities, also called Luv-Kush in political parlance, in Bihar for the last 25 years. Kushwahas make up 6-7 per cent of the state’s population.
Now that the BJP has been up against the ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) 2.0 comprising of seven parties — which have the support of various caste groups that make their social combination virtually unassailable — it has been actively looking for a party leader who could wrest the Kushwaha votes from the Mahagathbandhan. Sources said Samrat has been promoted by the BJP to split Nitish’s core OBC Koeri-Kurmi constituency.
The Bihar BJP’s spokesperson and ex-MLA, Manoj Sharma, told The Indian Express: “Selection of Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary is a very wise and meaningful selection made by the MLAs and MLCs of BJP Bihar. Both leaders promise to work for the state’s brighter future. Moreover, they will ensure that the voices of the masses will be heard. They will pressure their present government to take into account and tackle the adversities faced by the general public.”
