26/03/2015

Crowd of worries for JD(U), BJP at Manjhi’s rallies


Patna,(BiharTimes): The crowd being pulled by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi during his recent public meetings may not be larger than of Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi during the last year Lok Sabha election campaign in Bihar (as he claims), yet they are substantial enough to make both the Janata Dal (United) and BJP sit-up and ponder.

The ruling party of Bihar is a bit worried as Manjhi is attacking it at the point where it hurts it most. He is busy tarnishing the ‘turnaround man’ image of Nitish Kumar.

Ironically, apart from the Janata Dal (United), the BJP and a large section of media are responsible for the creation of larger-than-life profile of the present Bihar CM. Till a few months before the June 16, 2013 split in the NDA the then deputy CM, Sushil Kumar Modi, used to see prime ministerial material in Nitish Kumar. Perhaps no JD(U) leader was so generous in praise of Nitish as SuMo.

It is other thing that the saffron party has turned hostile and the Press has become somewhat balanced in its criticism of the Nitish government.

The BJP is concerned as Manjhi is outwitting the saffron party in singling out Nitish for criticism. Though BJP legislators are using all their lung power in both the Houses of the Assembly the truth is that they are deliberately not raising the real issues of the people of Bihar. It is finding it extremely difficult to flay Nitish in the langua ge being used by Manjhi because the BJP was a party to all the decisions of lavish spending on construction of conventional centre, museum, Assembly complex, flats for legislators etc in Patna.

Not only that, the BJP bigwigs would then strongly defend construction of all these huge structures on the plea that they are part of the beautification plan of Patna.

Manjhi’s stand is in total contrast to the BJP. He is questioning the very rationale behind the lavish spending of Rs 22,000-23,000 crore when the state government is unable to confirm the jobs of lakhs of para-teachers, other employees working on contract and increase the allowance and salary of policemen, homeguards, ASHA workers, Vikas Mitrs etc. So BJP’s criticism of Nitish is not cutting much ice. True the party won 31 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the last Lok Sabha election, yet that was much because of the Narendra Modi factor.

Besides, the vote was for Parliament and not state Assembly. Now the NaMo factor is waning in most part of the country, including Bihar.

Not only that, ‘news’ originating from New Delhi suggests that RSS leadership wants ties with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) restored. This may further compel people to lend their ears to any other alternative.

Whether they will vote for Manjhi in the next Assembly election or not is a different issue, they at least want to listen to what they have not heard till now. As people want to throw their attention towards some other political dictions they are getting attracted towards Manjhi’s rallies. It is other thing whether he would be able to translate this into votes or not.

During the election campaign last year Narendra Modi pulled a lot of crowd. He and his party succeeded in translating them into votes. People go to listen to Lalu Prasad for his inimitable style of speech. But of late he is not succeeding in getting votes.

Let us see how Manjhi fares.


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