A few hours after sharing platform and literally rubbing shoulders with Nitish, the deputy chief minister left Patna for those very constituencies of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where his boss visited exactly a week ago. But this time he is following Nitish to oppose him, rather than support him.

In the absence of Bada Modi––obviously Narendra of Gujarat––the Chota Modi is trying to market the so-called Bihar Model for his party’s candidates in exactly those very constituencies, where Nitish went.

Though nobody in the state BJP is willing to talk straight on the issue the truth is that the Saffron Brigade is extremely furious over this action of the chief minister. The leaders alleged that instead of blaming Sushil Modi, it is Nitish who should explain why he chose to campaign in Uttar Pradesh, where everyone knows the Janata Dal (United) has no future and the BJP has a golden past. Though the BJP is not going to get anywhere near power the aggressive manner in which the alliance partner in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United), has campaigned has definitely marred its prospect of securing third place.

“Is Nitish working hand-in-glove with the Congress,” is the question doing the rounds back in Bihar. If Congress did manage to secure third place and push the BJP to fourth it would certainly be thankful to none else but Nitish Kumar, who is eating into the BJP vote bank in east UP.

Nitish is in the habit of taking one step forward and than two steps backward. In May 2009 he publicly shook hand with Narendra Modi in Punjab. In June 2010 he condemned the newspaper advertisement released by the BJP on the eve of the party National Executive in Patna. The party ad has nothing objectionable. It just carried the same photo of Narendra Modi-Nitish Kumar shaking hands a year earlier. Furious Nitish cancelled the dinner he offered to the BJP bigwigs who were here for the National Executive.
They were many people who justified Nitish’s anger by stating that he did so keeping in mind the Assembly election to be held within four months.
But in October 2010 he took another U-turn. He chose to flag off the Jan Chetna Yatra of none else but Lal Krishna Advani. Though the Yatra failed to make any big impact in the country, the decision of Bihar chief minister came as a huge surprise to his own partymen.

Now in January 2012 he again switched gear. He decided to put up candidates in almost all the constituencies of UP. Not only that both he and party chief Sharad Yadav––the latter in particular––chose to vehemently attack the Hindutva party. In fact the Janata Dal (United) chose to attack the BJP where it pinches most.

How long will this flip-flop continue? After all there is no dearth of rank and file in the BJP, who feel that they are feeling more humiliated and insulted while sharing power for last six years rather than in the previous 15 years when they were in opposition.

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