Patna,(BiharTimes): Shatrughan Sinha may dismiss late Saturday night meeting with chief minister Nitish Kumar a courtesy call to a personal friend and that no political meaning should be attached to it.
Agreed.
But the timing and statement given on Saturday night evoked media’s attention. He not only chose to go to Nitish’s residence on the day party leader and Prime Minister launched a blistering attack on Bihar CM, but almost flayed Narendra Modi for launching a broadside against the development man of Bihar.
But even more questionable was the action he took the following day. He went on to attend Kayastha caste meetings organised by Vinod Srivastava of Rashtriya Janata Dal––in which Lalu Prasad was himself present––and the other one by Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, spokesman of JD(U). Former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay, was also present in RJD’s Kayasthas meeting.

The second one was attended by Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam and JD(U)’s Rajya Sabha MP and former diplomat, Pawan Verma. 

Can they also be dubbed as courtesy calls? Certainly not. He did not attend a similar Kayastha caste meeting organized by the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP R K Sinha a few weeks back. May be he was not invited as these days he is being ignored by the saffron party for obvious reasons.

If Shatrughan––no doubt the most dominating Kayastha figure of Bihar––attends two separate meeting of his caste organized by two rival parties than something is really cooking up. Not only this much: it is strange that not only JD(U) even RJD called a meeting of Kayastha and managed to attract some big leaders of the community. This is something unusual. 

No doubt the BJP is still confident of the Kayastha votes, but the party is certainly feeling uneasy over this latest development. Be it in Bihar, Jharkhand or even Uttar Pradesh the Kayasthas are feeling somewhat neglected though the caste overwhelmingly backed the party in the last quarter century.

Yashwant Sinha was left in the name of age. Sensing much resentment Narendra Modi in November last in-ducted his son as a junior minister.

Shatrughan Sinha, a party loyalist from the Jan Sangh days and former Union minister, has been left in lurch. Ravi Shankar Sinha has been inducted yet he is not a real heavyweight in this government.