Bihar Assembly Elections: Fighting ‘enemy within’, Nitish Kumar may now like Congress to win more seats

Bihar election was never so complicated in the last two decades. Till a fortnight back, it looked like a one-sided poll with the NDA making a clean sweep in the absence of a credible Opposition, particularly the faction-ridden Mahagatbandhan.

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But the last two weeks, particularly after Chirag Paswan’s revolt against Nitish Kumar, have seen many twists and turns which, in turn, have changed the entire permutations and combination.

Sample these three scenarios:

First: Nitish’s JD (U) is fighting against the Congress but wants the grand old party to romp home on maximum seats. Reason: The Congress may be of some help post-November 10, the counting day.

Second: The RJD is fighting the poll in alliance with the Congress but wants its ally to win less number of seats as Lalu has reportedly expressed his apprehension in Ranchi that Congress may throw its weight behind Nitish in case of a fractured verdict.

Third: The BJP has told the LJP that it’s no more part of the NDA, but deep within, it wants more and more nominees of Chirag Paswan to win so that if the saffron camp scores more than the JD (U) but is short of majority, the LJP may provide the much-needed succour.

Barring 1995 Assembly poll, the Bihar election never looked so complex.

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Though no JD (U) leader worth his salt would go on record, but Deccan Herald has reliably learnt that Nitish is now seriously working on Plan B wherein if his party fails to get adequate number of seats, or is ‘sabotaged’ by the ‘enemy within’, he should have at least 30 to 40 additional MLAs to fall back upon.

At least three authoritative sources within the ruling camp as well as the Congress have confirmed it to this correspondent that Nitish, apprehensive of any ‘foul play’, is now keeping all options open, including joining hands with his former allies, minus the RJD, post-poll. This includes the Congress (Nitish ally in 2015-17) and the Left (2013-14).

It is against this backdrop that Nitish has appointed former Congress president Ashok Choudhary, now in the JD (U), as the party’s working president so that he could initiate the back channel negotiations with the Congress.

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The grand old party, as per the first list, has identified the five constituencies it is most likely to win - Bikram, Buxar, Barbigha, Hisua and Kahalgaon. “As per our information, Nitish would now like Congress numbers to swell. In fact, he has always been soft towards the grand old party,” said the senior AICC functionary.

At the same time, the JD (U) is keeping a tab on all those BJP rebels who have joined hands with Chirag and contesting the poll on LJP symbol. The LJP has vowed to defeat Nitish.

“Warning has been issued to the eight BJP rebels who are contesting as LJP candidates against Nitish’s nominees. These BJP rebels include Rajendra Singh, Rameshwar Chourasia, Usha Vidyarthi, Indu Kashyap, Mrinal Shekhar, Shweta Singh, Rakesh Singh and Rani Kumari,” informed the NDA source.

Meanwhile, aware of the ‘larger gameplan’, the JD (U) released its ‘Saat Nishchay-II’ (Seven resolves-Part II), with the tag line: For Bihar’s growth, Nitish victory is for sure.