Nitish's JDU & Paswan's LJP's war-of-words escalates before Bihar polls; BJP tight-lipped

Ahead of the assembly polls in Bihar, the relationship between two NDA partners - Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Janta Dal-United (JDU) - appears to have turned sour. Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag Paswan who now heads the LJP has publically targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, especially for 'mismanagement' during the COVID pandemic, for the migrant crisis that began due to the Coronavirus-induced lockdown, and increasing crime rate in the state.

While JDU has refuted the remarks and has compared Chirag to 'Kalidasa' who chops the branch of the tree on which he is sitting, LJP has made it clear that it will decide if the party wants to contest the upcoming polls with Nitish Kumar's JDU. 

As the power tussle spills out into the open with the poll campaign kickstarting in the state, JDU leader KC Tyagi on Tuesday said that any party which is a part of the NDA in the state will have to accept Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's leadership, noting that top BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and its president JP Nadda, have announced that the alliance will fight the upcoming Bihar assembly polls under Kumar's stewardship.

Responding on the same, in a statement, LJP has now said that Tyagi has done them a 'favour' by making it clear that the two parties have never had any alliance. "We welcome this statement from the JDU that his party has never had any alliance with the LJP. JDU leader KC Tyagi has done us a favour," the LJP said in a statement.

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While the BJP has already announced that NDA will contest the polls under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party has said that it will decide for itself. Chirag Paswan led LJP met on September 7 and sources said that they have decided to contest on 143 seats. Sources say if the NDA does not agree to their poll terms, they may contest the upcoming elections against the ruling JDU.

Interestingly, the poster launched by LJP for the upcoming polls talks about Bihar being led by youth and has a quote that reads: "Vo lad rahe hain hum par raj karne ke liye aur hum lad rahe hain Bihar par naj karne ke liye" which roughly translates to "They are fighting to rule while we are fighting to be proud of our Bihar." While it remains unclear as to who is the party attempting to target through the aforementioned quote, it should be noted that Nitish Kumar is ruling Bihar for 15 years and contesting for his reelection. Moreover, LJP is also seemingly challenging the social engineering of the JDU, which is relevant in the Bihar elections, by another quote in its poster "Dharam na jaat, kare sabki baat" (Neither religion nor caste, let's talk about all).

Both Chirag Paswan's LJP and Nitish Kumar's JDU have clarified, however, that they will stick to the alliance with the BJP in Bihar. It remains to be seen how and when the BJP leadership steps in to quell the ongoing tussle between LJP and JDU.

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Bihar Elections 2020

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, Bihar is all set to go to polls for a 243-member assembly seat in October-November. The Election Commission has issued directives to conduct election amid COVID, however, the dates are yet to be announced. In the 2015 assembly polls, CM Nitish Kumar's JDU, then a part of the Mahagathbandhan won 71 seats, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD won 80 seats, and Congress won 27 seats. The BJP which fought the elections alone after Kumar in 2013 broke the 17-year-old alliance won a mere 53 seats out of 157 contested. However, the saffron party came back to power when Kumar ditched the Mahagathbandhan and once again stitched an alliance with the BJP.

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