Patna,(BiharTimes ): The more the Janata Dal (United) leadership is trying to improve the condition of the party the more things are worsening.

The problem, according to many observers, is that the Janata Dal (United) leaders are living in fool’s paradise. They feel that the party would win back the support of those voters who voted for the BJP in the recent election. They have based their assessment on the basis of some media reports, which appeared during the election campaign. These reports suggested that many EBC and mahadalit voters may return to vote for Nitish Kumar as he had done “development work” in the state. It is also being argued that very often people vote for different parties in Parliament and Assembly election.

But the party leaders appear to have failed to measure the general mood of the voters. If one goes by their argument the Janata Dal (United) should have done well in the by-polls held for five Assembly seats. They were held along with the Lok Sabha election. 

The ruling Janata Dal (United) won only one of them while the RJD walked away with three and the BJP with just one.

True, election to five seats is not enough, but they can serve as a sample as the by-polls were held in different parts of the state. Interestingly, three of these seats were earlier held by the JD(U) and it lost all of them. 

The JD(U) can only win the Kocha Dhaman seat, which was earlier held by Akhtar-ul-Iman of the RJD, who resigned and crossed over to the ruling party on the eve of the Lok Sabha election as he wanted to contest the parliamentary poll. 

After the Lok Sabha election Nitish Kumar resigned from the post of chief minister and got nominated Jitan Ram Manjhi as his successor. Apparently the plan is to revamp the party and win back the support of the agrarian upper castes, EBCs and mahadalits.

However, the move seems to have backfired. The decision by the new chief minister to nominate a dozen politicians to the Legislative Council and then expanded his cabinet and pack it with the defectors only intensified the resentment with the old loyalists, who have been ignored openly revolting against the ‘de facto’ chief minister Nitish Kumar. 

If there is so much turmoil at the top its impact at the bottom level is all too devastating. The rank and file are confused and bewildered. Many of them are simply planning to cross over to other parties, most of them to the BJP.

The hold of the new Janata Dal (United) government over bureaucracy has got weakened and hardly any development work is being initiated. If it continues for another 15 months, as it is being feared, the party would lose whatever support it has. 

During the recent cabinet expansion Nitish has taken care to reward two Bhumihars, who were till sometimes back, openly working against the party. Besides, he had inducted two Kurmis, two Muslims, one Yadav as well as members from EBC, mahadalit and trading community.

But it is over the induction of Lallan Singh, which has created storm. In the early days of Nitish Kumar government he used to play second fiddle but now he is being dubbed as the super-CM.

If this chaos continues in the party for a few more months the Janata Dal (United) will be left with no slogan to contest election. The development works have already slowed down and law and order simply collapsed. If Manjhi is replaced and again Nitish Kumar is projected as the CM there is likelihood of the party losing the mahadalit votes. 

But the only comfort for the JD(U) in Bihar is that the other opposition party, the RJD, too is passing through almost the same crisis and as a ruling party in the state it is still in the position of being the major party to oppose the BJP.