BJP hopes for 'JP', Rajendra Prasad advantage in Bihar, but faces internal strife

The union cabinet on Wednesday announced setting up a memorial for Gandhian socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan or JP at his birthplace in Sitab Diara in Chhapra district of Bihar. It also announced an Indian Institute of Management for Bodh Gaya. Both decisions have been taken with an eye on the Bihar assembly polls in October.

The announcement on constructing a memorial for 'JP' came on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of the Emergency in 1975. The BJP believes it can justifiably lay claim to JP's legacy in Bihar, with the socialist leader's legatees like Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav having aligned with the Congress - the party that had imposed the Emergency and imprisoned 'JP'. "By aligning with the Congress, Lalu and Nitish have betrayed the ideals of 'JP'. The people of Bihar will not forgive them," a top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, giving his assessment of Bihar elections, recently told a group of journalists.

The party also thinks that many in Bihar still feel the 'insult' that India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru meted out to his colleague and first President Rajendra Prasad, who hailed form Bihar. A recent book 'Nehru: A Troubled Legacy' by intelligence officer RNP Singh, that BJP plans to use as part of its campaign in Bihar, has alleged on the basis of correspondence between Congress leaders of the time that Nehru resorted to desperate measures to prevent Rajendra Prasad from becoming the President.

But the internal rivalries of BJP state unit leaders and increased muscle flexing by the BJP's Bihar allies is threatening to make the Lalu Prasad - Nitish Kumar tensions pale into insignificance.

In Patna on Sunday, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party (RLSP) held its national executive to pass a resolution that party chief Upendra Kushwaha, a junior minister in the Narendra Modi government, should be the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the Bihar assembly elections. Ever since, the RLSP and Kushwaha's twitter handles have gone berserk in tweeting how Kushwaha and his party will be the "dark horse" in Bihar. "Those who underestimate the strength of RLSP must wait for the time when we will show our hidden magic," Kushwaha, a leader of the Koeri caste, tweeted.

Kushwaha has even suggested a seat sharing formula, giving itself 67 seats, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) 74 seat, BJP 102 seats and none to former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Party. Manjhi's possible entry into the NDA is troubling Paswan as well. His party has announced that it will field its candidates against at least six of Manjhi's MLAs, who were earlier with LJP. It is unlikely to be easy for the BJP to strike a balance between Paswan and Manjhi - both Dalit leaders.

The RLSP resolution was passed on a day when BJP President Amit Shah was in Patna for the Yoga Day, which in itself launched several conspiracy theories when Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Nandkishore Yadav, BJP's Yadav face in Bihar, shared the stage with Shah while former deputy CM Sushil Modi sat among the crowd.

Sushil Modi has tried to project himself as BJP's Bihar leader. On Friday, a memoir by him on the Emergency will be unveiled in Bihar. Union minister Anant Kumar will launch the book. Sushil Modi is said to have been upset after Anant Kumar said last week that the NDA was unlikely to announce its CM candidate and will fight under PM Narendra Modi's leadership. The BJP is wary of infighting if it were to announce a chief ministerial candidate as there are several aspirants, including CP Thakur. There is also the question of accommodating Rashtriya Janata Dal rebel Pappu Yadav even as former Lalu associate Ram Kirpal Yadav, currently a BJP MP, has been feeling ignored.

The top BJP leadership, however, is confident that NDA can repeat its Lok Sabha performance of winning 31 of the 40 seats in Bihar. It believes Modi's message of development will overcome the caste factor among the youth. As for RLSP's demands, BJP sources point out how the party under Shah had severed ties with its allies in Haryana and Maharashtra because of similar demands by them.