PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar didn’t attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Droupadi Murmu in the national capital on Monday. It was the second invite by BJP’s top brass in the last four days that Nitish preferred to stay away from, leading to speculations that is not all well between the JD(U) and the BJP, the two leading allies of NDA in Bihar?
Nitish also skipped a farewell dinner for outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind, hosted by PM Narendra Modi, on July 22 in Delhi, on the plea that he had to participate in the oath-taking function of seven newly elected members of the Bihar Legislative Council in the state capital here. Nitish attended the legislative council function on that day.
JD(U)’s senior leader and party’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha on Monday sought to play down Nitish’s absence at Murmu’s swearing-in ceremony.
“It is not necessary that everyone takes part in every programme. Now, the presidential election is over and the oath-taking (by Murmu) is just a formality. If the CM or anyone is not going, it is not such a big matter that should be given much importance (in media). CM had a lot of work so maybe that’s why he did not go,” Kushwaha said in Patna on Monday.
While the origin of the growing rift between the two allies can be traced to several past events when the BJP and JD(U) were not seen on the same page, the latest flashpoint seems to be the differences over the Bihar Police’s alleged mis-handing of the violent protests over the Agnipath scheme when the BJP state president and Paschim Champaran MP Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal categorically said that he was not satisfied with Nitish Kumar's performance as CM.
Jaiswal said Nitish’s much-hyped governance model wasn't in evidence as violent anti-Agnipath protests raged in Bihar.
In a sharp retort the next day, JD(U) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar wondered why the Yogi Adiyanath-led BJP government in UP didn't run bulldozers over youth protesting against the Agnipath recruitment scheme after they set a police station in Aligarh ablaze. "Has the engine of the bulldozer failed?" he said. "If they (BJP) are questioning police inaction in Bihar during the recent attack on the houses of some BJP leaders, why are they silent on similar incidents in BJP-governed states like UP, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana?".
