Patna,(BiharTimes): The origin of the latest muscle-flexing by the ruling Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar can be traced in mid-April, that is just a couple of days after the announcement of merger of Janata Parivar was made by Samajwadi Party supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

RJD leader and former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s demand of 145 seats is not an isolated development. Nitish Kumar might have hit back by stating that there are 243 seats available to contest; but perhaps he appeared more upset over Lalu Prasad’s advice to move the Supreme Court against the Patna high court ruling against reservation in promotion to Dalits and RJD chief’s suggestion to hold talks with striking school-teachers.

As Nitish Kumar has little option––he has already burnt all the bridges––RJD found the present time much more opportune to twist his arm. For example, Raghuvansh did not stop there, but even went on to criticize the state government for the deteriorating law and order situation, failure in reaching to the quake victims and poor health infrastructure.

However, it was the tremor caused by Nitish Kumar’s action on April 19 that shook the very foundation of the upcoming Janata Parivar structure.

A day before news was flashed in the media that Nitish and Lalu would be sharing dais at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan as Prajapati Samaj, an association of Kumhars (potters), an Extremely Backward Caste, had invited both of them.As only four days back (April 15) the merger announcement was made in New Delhi––though without any name and symbol––it was deemed as the first such public show by these two Bihar stalwarts. As per programme, Lalu Prasad came and addressed the public meeting but Nitish sent a couple of leaders much junior to Lalu’s stature.

His absence from this social congregation not only shocked the Kumhars, an EBC whose vote is crucial for the Janata Parivar, but also upset the RJD rank and file.The very next day RJD legislators went on offensive in the state Assembly over the killing of one its workers three weeks back. They went to the well of the House and raised other issues too. Its leader in the House, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, even questioned the very existence of the state machinery (“sarkar naam ki cheez hai ya nahin”).

Media pundits were surprised by the suddeen aggressive posture by the RJD and BJP MLAs led by Nand Kishore Yadav openly betrayed their happiness.The message from the RJD was loud and clear: do not take Lalu for granted as his party in alliance with the Congress got 30 per cent votes in the last Lok Sabha election against JD(U)’s only 16 per cent.

But Nitish, who has lost his bargaining position after last year’s defeat and the Jitan Ram Manjhi phenomenon, seems to have paid little heed to it.When Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav dropped his ‘technical problem’ shell it was clear that the merger has been put on back burner. Still there was hope for alliance. But the development taking place ever since Thursday last has put a question mark before the very alliance between the two parties of Janata parivar.

Raghuvansh seems to have deliberately put the spanner at the instance of Lalu. What he said now is a known fact, that RJD was ahead in 145 seats over JD(U) in the last year Lok Sabha poll.

If the merger was already announced a month back how come these old issues of seat-sharing cropped up once again. The truth is that RJD wants to show Nitish his actual place.The news of the friction within the Janata Parivar has electrified the BJP leaders and workers, who were feeling somewhat demoralized after the defeat of the party in Delhi election. The party is busy papering over the rift on CM’s candidature and trying to further consolidate social engineering formula adopted last year. Amit Shah’s Ambedkar Jyanti rally in Patna on April 14 was a part of this exercise.