Serious differences between defence minister George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, who recently resigned as railway minister, may soon threaten the unity of the Janata Dal (U) in Bihar.
According to a source close to the two leaders, Nitish Kumar and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav have moved closer to each-other and are trying to rope in former railway minister and Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan in order to isolate George Fernandes and initiate a realignment of the socialist stream in the state, which includes Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
However, Paswan is said to have moved closer to BJP over the last few months and shares his dislike for Laloo Yadav with Fernandes.
The advantage with Paswan is that he is the only high profile Dalit leader from the state who is also acceptable to the upper castes. He is seen as a good administrator and commands full control over around 30,000 votes covering almost all Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar.
"The situation is critical," is how a Samata Party official described the present state of differences within the party.
Fernandes and Kumar have merged their Samata Party with the Sharad Yadav led split faction of the Janata Dal to form the JD (U).
The differences between Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes were reflected in Nitish Kumar's public statement against his party accepting 25 seats from the BJP in Bihar. Attacking the BJP, Kumar had said that his party should have stuck to its demand to contest 27 seats as its claim was not a bargaining posture but a statement based on the factual strength of the JD(U) and the BJP.
His party would have asked for 35 seats if it wanted to strike a bargaining posture, he had said. This was seen as an open castigation of George Fernandes' decision to accept 25 seats for the JD (U).
A party official, however, said Nitish's oblique criticism of George on seat-sharing could reflect his mood but "the problem lies elsewhere". He went to the extent of saying that Nitish would like the entire party to come together and isolate Fernandes.
Meanwhile, RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav and the Congress finally agreed on a seat-sharing formula for the state with the Congress agreeing to contest 13 of the 54 Lok Sabha seats.
