Interestingly, adversaries of the ruling party in the State have no role to play in its dissolution and it is a move by choice of the JDU leadership instead. Indeed, poll-strategist Prashat Kishor -- who earned the credit for working out the successful strategy for Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and subsequently, for Nitish Kumar in Bihar elections -- is active once again and running the show from behind.
If well-placed sources privy to the JDU and Kishor are to be believed, the JDU has applied to the Election Commission for registration of a new political party and a symbol by proposing to dissolve and then merge itself into the new party. Although sources refused to divulge the name of the proposed political party, they claimed that the ‘Tree’ would be the party symbol.
As per the strategy, the proposed party would emerge as a conglomeration of political parties that is claimed to include the Janta Dal United, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha of Babulal Marandi, the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh, the Janata Dal of H D Deve Gowda and the Lok Dal of O P Chautala. The new party would be headed by Bihar Chief Minister and JDU leader Nitish Kumar while his two alliance partners in Bihar, the Congress and the RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav, have been told to play second fiddle to wrest power from the BJP at the Centre in the 2019 elections.
Sources revealed that Prashan Kishor had a meeting with Rahul Gandhi in Delhi as a special envoy of Nitish Kumar. He subsequently contacted Deve Gowda, Ajit Singh, O P Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala (the Chautala-duo are serving 10-year sentence in Tihar Jail in connection with a corruption case in Haryana). Kishor is said to have suggested to Rahul Gandhi to support Nitish Kumar’s elevation as a PM candidate in 2019 in the larger interest of the party to dislodge the BJP at the Centre. In a similar vein, he advised Lalu Yadav too to play second fiddle while supporting the candidature of Nitish Kumar for the PM’s post. Lalu Yadav is believed to be aiming to replace Kumar in Bihar with one of his politician sons if the former was elevated to power at the Centre and endorsed Kishor’s proposal.
Unlike the Grand Alliance formed to hold on to power in Bihar in the recent Assembly polls in the State, different political parties would merge with the proposed political party ostensibly with the common interests to rout the BJP and its alliance partners at the Centre in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Sources confirmed that the Election Commission was supposed to come out with its decision about the formation of the new political party by April 10-11 and by the end of this month the ruling JDU in Bihar would be dissolved and merged into the new party along with the other regional parties from different parts of the country. Nitish Kumar is all set to be the President of the new party and would be declared PM candidate before 2019.
It would have a collateral impact on Jharkhand politics too as the JVM of Babulal Marandi -- that is also going to merge into the new party with its two MLAs -- has been contesting the anti-defection case against its six MLAs who have been lured away by the BJP-led Raghubar Das Government in the State. The case is pending before the Speaker for the past about one year for obvious reasons and the party is all set to move the Jharkhand High Court soliciting a judicial order to the Speaker to decide the matter within a time-frame. The JDU and other political partners are said to have assured Marandi to lend their all out support to his legal battle.
BW Reporters
D.P. Sharan has been a journalist for the past 30 years and has served many national dailies, magazines and channels. He has also been a member at the Central Board of Film Certification, Mumbai under I&B Ministry, Government of India
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