NEW DELHI: The souring relation between NDA partners BJP and JD(U) is likely to have a bearing on the forthcoming presidential election. Moreover, JD(U)’s record of going against the ‘coalition dharma’ in the last two presidential elections makes it uncertain whether the political party will back the NDA candidate.
Presidential elections
JD(U)’s record of going against its coalition partners in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections may worry BJP.
JD(U) was a part of NDA during the 2012 presidential election. NDA had supported PA Sangma’s candidature while UPA had fielded Pranab Mukherjee as its candidate.
Going against NDA, JD(U) had voted in favour of Mukherjee who won the election.
In the 2017 presidential election, JD(U) was a part of UPA which had fielded former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar as its candidate. On the other side, NDA’s candidate was incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind, who was the then Bihar governor.
In a surprise move, JD(U) went with NDA and voted for Kovind, praising his tenure as the state governor.
While JD(U)’s relations with BJP had started worsening in 2012, its relations in 2017 were turning sour with RJD, which was a part of Congress-led UPA.
JD(U) is currently a part of NDA while its equations with BJP are not at their best. This raises the question whether Nitish will back NDA’s presidential candidate.
JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi told TOI that the party would support the NDA candidate in the July presidential election.
On JD(U)’s voting pattern in the last two elections, he said, “In the last two elections, we supported the candidates, not the coalitions. Conditions were such that we voted for candidates. Where is the opposition this time? We are a part of NDA at present. We will support whatever is decided in the NDA meeting. We are united.”
Nitish Kumar’s roller coaster relation with BJP
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of JD(U) has had a roller coaster relation with BJP in the last 10 years. He was a Union minister between 2001 and 2004 in the BJP-led NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He went on to become the Bihar chief minister in 2005 with JD(U) and BJP forging a pre-poll alliance in the state.
The relations between Kumar and BJP soured after Narendra Modi was projected as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Kumar objected to Modi’s candidature. After BJP’s victory in the general election, he resigned as Bihar CM in May 2014 and the alliance between BJP and JD(U) broke apart.
In the 2015 Bihar assembly election, JD(U) stitched an alliance with Lalu Prasad-led RJD and Congress to form Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance). Mahagathbandhan defeated BJP and Kumar again became the CM.
However, the Mahagathbandhan experiment did not last long. Kumar asked Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav, who was the deputy CM then, to resign after corruption charges were levelled against him. Kumar stepped down from office in July 2017 after Yadav refused to resign.
JD(U) again joined hands with BJP and together they won the 2020 Bihar assembly election.
However, the relations between the political parties are on the downspin once again. Exerting pressure on BJP, JD(U) is moving ahead with its demand for a caste-based census. However, BJP is not in favour of a caste census.
Kumar has convened a meeting of all political parties of Bihar later this week. The meeting is likely to be held on May 27. Kumar has said the proposal to demand a caste census would be taken up in the state cabinet.
The expiry of Union steel minister Ramchandra Prasad Singh’s term to the Rajya Sabha next month has also become a sticking point between JD(U) and BJP. Singh, a JD(U) leader, is considered close to BJP.
Giving BJP anxious moments, JD(U) does not seem favourably disposed towards renominating Singh. As a result, Modi may relieve him from his cabinet, albeit reluctantly.
Alternately, the BJP and JD(U) may reach a flashpoint if BJP nominates Singh to the Rajya Sabha from its quota as it had done in the case of Suresh Prabhu who was inducted into BJP from Shiv Sena and made to continue as a Union minister in Modi’s first stint as PM.
Another case of JD(U) and BJP pulling in different directions was on display when JD(U) protested the proposed visit of MNS chief Raj Thackeray to Ayodhya on June 5.
Thackeray cancelled his visit as BJP MP from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, had announced vociferous protests against Thackeray. It was despite party leader and former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis’s appeal not to oppose the visit.
The changed equations between the two parties may have an impact on the presidential election likely to be held in July.
