ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rift in the Bihar NDA over tickets growing

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

Cracks have appeared in the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar. And with each passing day the fissures are widening.

Not one of its constituents, except the Bharatiya Janata Party of course, has released its list of candidates. And the Bihar People's Party, an influential upper-caste organisation, is on the verge of pulling out.

The Janata Dal (United) camp too is in complete chaos after the resignation of its national general secretary, Mangini Lal Mandal, and eight other senior office-bearers. Mandal has accused the party top brass of denying tickets to "sincere and honest workers".

The state JD-U unit on Saturday organised a mock court in which Union Telecommunication Minister Ram Vilas Paswan was "tried and hanged till death" after being found guilty of nepotism.

State JD-U spokesman Laxmi Sahu told rediff.com on Monday evening that he would fast unto death if Paswan's son-in-law was given the party ticket.

While the state unit of the BJP has been able to maintain a facade of unity, the party remains divided within. For instance, in Siwan, members of all the BJP committees from the panchayat to the district level have resigned in protest against the party's "abject surrender to the Samata Party and denial of tickets to dedicated and committed workers". The district party office has been closed and its signboards removed. And in Ranchi last week, some BJP workers ransacked the party office and looted cash.

All is not well even at the state party headquarters in Patna. Ram Swaroop Paswan, general secretary of the party's farmers' cell, has been staging a dharna (sit-in) since January 31 and has threatened to immolate himself as he has been denied a ticket despite his 35-year association with the party.

On the other hand, the Patna residence of Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar was flooded with hundreds of partymen and candidates. Kumar, who arrived by the Sunday afternoon flight from Delhi, went underground and showed up at his home only late in the evening, after most of the ticket-seekers had left.

On Monday evening, both he and Defence Minister George Fernandes were present at a function to release a book written by N K Singh, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, but they refused to say anything significant to reporters. Fernandes only said the issue of chief ministership would be sorted out after the election.

While the BJP, Samata Party and JD-U have at least on paper agreed on a seat-sharing formula, the BPP is yet to agree even to that. Its leader, Anand Mohan Singh, is still insisting on more seats. State BPP president Ram Bachchan Paswan has accused the bigger NDA partners of leaving behind only those seats for the BPP where there is hardly any chance of victory. "Barring four or five, all the seats given to us are useless," he said.

The BPP, which has only two members in the outgoing assembly, had staked its claim to 41 seats on the plea that it was the runner-up in about 40 of them during the 1995 assembly election.

But political observers believe Anand Mohan has hardly any option left. His defeat in the last Lok Sabha election has significantly reduced his bargaining position. And even the doors of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal have been closed to him. If he does not agree to the 26 seats left to him by the NDA and goes it alone, he may not win even one seat.

But the BPP's separation from the NDA could send out wrong signals to the Rajputs, Anand Mohan's community. That is why two Samata Party parliamentarians, Jai Narayan Prasad Nishad and Mahendra Baitha, issued statements in Delhi on Monday in favour of Anand Mohan.

Even if Rajput votes do not swing in favour of the RJD, the BPP has enough potential to damage the NDA's prospects. Young Rajputs still adore Anand Mohan.

Failure of the talks with the BPP may also have significant political and social fallouts. It may have a detrimental impact on upper-caste unity, especially in rural Bihar.

BPP politicians who did not wish to be quoted blamed the Bhumihar lobby in the NDA for ignoring Anand Mohan. They said he lost the Sheohar seat to the RJD in the 1999 Lok Sabha election only because the Bhumihars betrayed him. Sheohar, according to them, has 21 per cent Rajput and 16 per cent Bhumihar votes. "How can a candidate lose if he enjoys 37 per cent of the votes? This suggests that the Bhumihars did not vote for him," one politician said.

He charged that the Bhumihars do not want leaders of other castes to emerge. They betrayed Kurmi politician Nitish Kumar in Barh too. Kumar scraped through by the skin of his teeth. His margin was just 1,335 votes.

Bhumihars on the other hand blame Anand Mohan for breaking upper-caste unity by contesting the 1998 Lok Sabha election in alliance with the RJD, only to change sides again in 1999.

Tell us what you think of this report