Patna,(BiharTimes): As during the time of LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan’s joining the BJP-led alliance last year this time too the saffron party rank and file appears to be divided as to how should the party deal with chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Some leaders of the party are a bit perturbed on the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh and party’s national chief, Amit Shah, are giving so much importance to the Bihar CM, who is fighting with his back to the wall.
In private they are now citing the example of Shiv Sena which has strongly criticised the BJP leadership. How can one support the man who said he accepts commission, the Sena asked. Not only that a few months back the BJP came down heavily on Manjhi for saying that SCs and STs are original inhabitants
of India while the upper castes are outsiders.At the state level the leadership has now started getting the feedback from the lower rung of the party.
Most of the workers are not inclined towards Manjhi. That is why the leader of opposition in the state Assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav, is now saying that it is upto Manjhi to decide from where the support would come.After Manjhi managed to get the support of just a dozen MLAs none in the BJP are claiming that more than 50 JD(U) MLAs are in touch with the saffron party and may join it any moment.It needs to be recalled that the party’s central leadership prevailed when a strong section within opposed the entry of Ram Vilas in NDA. Leaders like Dr C P Thakur and Giriraj Singh even stayed away from March 10, 2014 election rally of Narendra Modi in Muzaffarpur as Ram Vilas was very much on the dais.
When Lalu Prasad’s controversial brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav went to meet the then CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi in 2013 a section of the party leaders in Bihar were upset because of his controversial image.Today Sadhu is not in the BJP but is said to be working as a pointsman of the saffron party.That is why the first person Manjhi called on after his Makar Sankranti Day meeting with Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav was Sadhu. Meeting the state BJP leaders directly would not have served the purpose. So in spite of the state BJP leaders maintaining a distance Sadhu is a key link for the party’s central leadership with Manjhi.
How can a state chief minister call on a person who is not even an MLA or MP without any political purpose? This was then asked.Now on the eve of the February 20 trial of strength a section of the state BJP is not very much enthusiastic. But like in the case of Ram Vilas and Sadhu the central leadership may prevail.
The state leadership has a problem. At the bottom level there are many supporters who are not very much eager to embrace Manjhi as this would send a wrong signal to the masses.After all it was till December last that the same Manjhi was publicly attacking the ‘Sat-bhaiya’ (seven) ministers from Bihar in the Union cabinet. He threatened to stop their entry into the state. At one point of time he said he would prefer to die rather than join hands with the BJP.
Apart from “the upper caste as outsider remarks” his warning to errant doctors that their hands would be chopped off and his claim that a temple in Madhubani was washed after his visit did not go down well in the BJP circle.In the first seven months leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi have innumerable times called his government as Junge Raj-2. It is only in January that they started changing gear.
It is difficult for the supporters to reconcile to the new situation.Even in the home turf of Gaya Manjhi is getting increasingly isolated. He always had a good relationship with politically influentially Bhumihars of the district, but many of them have now adopted wait and watch attitude.
In neighbouring Nawada Manjhi’s effigies were burnt twice within a few days. Incidentally, many of those instrumental in this act were upper castemen and supporters of the BJP. Nawada is represented in Lok Sabha by none else but Union minister of state Giriraj Singh.Analysts are of the view that when the central leaders of the party courted controversial figures like Ram Vilas and Sadhu Yadav the party was not in power and wanted to get support from any quarter. Now that the party is already in power in the Centre and got large percentage of Dalit votes in the last Lok Sabha election why is it out to woo Manjhi?
The Assembly election results in Delhi has also alarmed the BJP. But it is in a bind too. If it refuses to support Manjhi, then it may be accused of leaving a Mahadalit in lurch at the time he needs a pair of crutches. How can then the BJP charge Nitish Kumar with betraying a Mahadalit?
