Patna, (Bihar Times): Chief minister Nitish Kumar and sacked building construction minister, Monazir Hasan, separately met the national President of Janata Dal (United), Sharad Yadav, for second consecutive day in Delhi on Friday. While Nitish had a couple of rounds of talks with Sharad on Thursday too Monazir, who landed in Delhi on Wednesday night, managed to slip to Jaipur the following morning. However, he finally met Sharad late on that very evening.
Though Nitish and Monazir did not come face-to-face
the repeated meetings with Sharad in less than 24
hours speak of the gravity of the situation. A senior
party functionary in Delhi told BiharTimes over phone
that the crisis was really serious, but not as serious
as to have any impact on the existence of the state
government. However, he conceded that the situation
was extremely volatile in the BJP and the leadership
change was very much imminent after the Karnataka
poll.
Reports from Delhi suggest that all out attempts are
being made to soothe the ruffled feathers of the
dissident MLAs. Janata Dal (United) sources in Patna
hinted that Nitish had taken the latest
development––the meeting of two dozen MLAs at
Monazir’s residence a couple of days back––quite
seriously and was making a sort of climb down. He had
got an inkling that the dissidents have the blessing
of Sharad Yadav as he too wants to cut the size of
chief minister.
It seems that Nitish has somewhat softened his stand
too. Monazir later told newsmen that he apprised
Sharad with what exactly happened in Bihar and what
had upset the dissidents most. He said that the
central leadership of the party now says that it had
not issued any show-cause to him. “The party just
wanted some clarification. This is what I was told
today,” Monazir said.
Though fire-fighting is on in the Janata Dal (United)
there is no end to the squabbling within the BJP. The
dismissed art and culture minister, Janaradan Singh
Sigriwal, on Friday met party leader, Arun Jaitley,
and apprised him of his position.
