23/06/2017

Nitish caught on wrong foot after UPA’s own masterstroke





Patna,(BiharTimes): By hurriedly announcing his party’s support for Ramnath Kovind’s candidature for the post of President Janata Dal (United) national president, Nitish Kumar, has not checkmated alliance partner Rashtriya Janata Dal, as some mediapersons are trying to project, but has once again exposed before all the non-NDA parties how untrustworthy a politician he is. The issue is not that Ramnath Kovind would not win, but about the credibility of a senior politician, who wishes to be the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition parties.


There is no dearth of people in the BJP, especially in Bihar, who is against accepting Nitish back into its fold as he, according to them, has betrayed them after 17 long years of association. After all it was the BJP which rescued him from political wilderness in 1995 to make him the railway minister and then the chief minister of Bihar for so many years. Then suddenly, on June 16, 2013, he snapped ties with the saffron party and kicked out all its ministers. A year later the same Nitish Kumar went all the way to find all the merits in ‘Bade Bhai’ Lalu Prasad and embraced him.


But after winning the Assembly election in alliance with RJD and Congress he started singing a different tune. He did so just after demonetization forcing the Trinamul Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee to use the word betrayer against him.


Now the same Nitish, in a matter of few minutes, went to meet Ramnath Kovind in Raj Bhawan immediately after the BJP announced his candidature on June 19. The Bihar chief minister showered praise on the outgoing governor and almost backed his candidature. On June 21, just a day before the opposition meeting, he formally announce his support. He did all this when it was well-known that the opposition parties, including JD(U), was to meet in this regard on June 22.


When BiharTimes reached out to one of Janata Dal (United)’s national office-bearers, he minced no words to say in English: “Nitish Kumar is a disaster.” He was shocked by the logic put forward by Nitish. He said that the Bihar CM did the same at the time of demonetization. It seems that he had learnt the art of spoiling any initiative taken by anyone in the opposition camp.


He said that now that Meira Kumar has been named by the opposition how come a Grand Alliance party, especially from Bihar, support Ramnath Kovind. She is a Bihari and much more talented and free from any controversy. She is from prestigious Indian Foreign Service, a former Union minister and Speaker. She too is a Dalit––and of course, a woman too.


“It has become very difficutl for our spokespersons to defend Nitish’s absurd decision. Anyway they are all made to rant Kovind, Kovind, Kovind,” the JD(U) leader told BiharTimes adding just see what are people commenting on Facebook about the NDA’s Presidential candidate––especially one from a gentleman from Benaras.


An English language journalist based in Patna with over two decades of experience told BiharTimes that he had never heard of Ramnath Kovind till the date he became the governor of the state. “Kovind is no match to Meira Kumar. He has made no political, social or educational contribution. Take it from me: many NDA legislators would vote for Meira Kumar,” he said.


A New Delhi-based deputy news editor of an English daily, who too is originally from Patna, was so perplexed by Nitish’s decision that  he started speculating something else. “It seems that the BJP people know some weak points to blackmail Nitish Kumar. After all the saffron party knows his weakness as he had a long association with it. That is why, at every crucial time, he takes such a decision which his own partymen fail to defend.

 

 

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