A pointed question which one needs to ask the MLAs belonging to the Jitan Ram Manjhi camp is: if their House membership was so dear to them why did they launch a total war against Nitish Kumar.
Save Manjhi, all of them voted for the Nitish Kumar government on the occasion of seeking trust vote on March 11. This gave a big morale-booster to the ruling JD(U).As if that was not enough, moments after the result 140-0 was announced in the Assembly Manjhi claimed that he can still bring down the Nitish government. But then, how?
Analysts are now doubting the very seriousness of the Manjhi camp. What Manjhi needs to be told loud and clear is that he had let down many independent-minded people who sympathized with his cause. Losing a battle is one thing. Even running away from it or surrendering before the enemy can be understood. But how can one justify the logic of joining the enemy camp in the heat of the intense battle. Yet, still claiming that they would defeat the Nitish camp. If an MLA can not sacrifice his seat at the fag end of its tenure, when no by-election can be possible for these seats––as the next Assembly poll is just six months away––what else can they do?
How can they expect to win a bigger war?The point of debate now is not who won, but who actually lost. Score-wise the Nitish Kumar government won 140-0. Yet former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and BJP would have scored a decisive moral point had they fought the battle with a better strategy.
A close analysis of the BJP-Manjhi combination would reveal that something somewhere had certainly gone wrong.The BJP leader in the Assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav, was right in saying that his party had not moved the trust vote and asked as to why Nitish Kumar had to seek confidence votes four times in 22 months. But a counter-question can be asked as to what had happened to the repeated claims of senior BJP leaders that more than 50 JD(U) MLAs are in touch with the saffron party. In the first seven months of the Manjhi government the BJP would repeatedly claim of bringing down the government. Now with Manjhi on this side and the main rival Nitish back as CM why did not the BJP put up a bit extra effort. If not a single MLA could cross over after a handful of them at the time of Rajya Sabha election last summer it proves that all these big talk of JD(U) MLAs joining the BJP was exaggerated.
There is no doubt that some JD(U) MLAs might have been in touch with the BJP as they were dissatisfied with Nitish. But by the same logic it can also be said that some BJP MLAs too were in touch with JD(U).
The BJP do indulge in such psychological warfare. It is other thing that they actually failed. Or is it that the BJP deliberately changed its strategy and does not want to bring down the Nitish Kumar government and make him a martyr.The BJP may be down but not out. It is redrawing its strategy. But what about the Manjhi camp. It has totally confused its own support base. Manjhi, no doubt, played a big gamble with the Dalit votebank.
Manjhi needs to understand that if he fails to prove himself as an asset for the BJP, the latter would simply dump him. He would be then left high and dry.
