Today's crucial LJP meet comes against the backdrop of a tussle between the party and the ruling JD(U), led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which has been on for months.
The National Demoratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar may be in for a surprise ahead of state polls as one of its allies, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), might well queer the pitch. As the Chirag Paswan-led party goes into a huddle to decide its future course of action within the NDA, reports suggest a possibility that LJP might stage a repeat of its 2005 strategy.
In 2005, LJP had fielded candidates against the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), even though both were a part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in Bihar.
Today's meet comes against the backdrop of a tussle between the ruling Janata Dal (United), led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and the LJP, which has been on for months, and Chiraj Paswan's comments against Nitish Kumar haven't helped matters.
Also Read | Bihar elections: Paswans flex muscles as Nitish launches virtual poll campaign
By all accounts, Chiraj is miffed by the JD(U)'s move to include former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) into the alliance. Manjhi, like the Paswans, is a Dalit leader with a history of targeting the LJP.
In March, Paswan had targeted Kumar over the "deteriorating law and order situation in the state", and while the CM had kept mum on his allies' criticism, some of the top JD(U) leaders had rushed to his defense. They also suggested before that Paswan, the son of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, has been getting ahead of himself, but the junior Paswan has continued his attack on the Bihar government.
Paswan's salvos have all been mostly over the law and order situation in Bihar, but in recent days he has also attacked Kumar's decision to provide government jobs to kin of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes community members who were killed and has called it "nothing but an election-related announcement".
Also Read: BJP culture wing prints posters demanding justice for Sushant Singh Rajput as Bihar election nears
In a letter to the Bihar chief minister, he accused Kumar of not fulfilling earlier promises made to SCs and STs, including giving them three dismil of land. The LJP president said that "if the Nitish Kumar government was sincere", it should give jobs to a family member of all those from the communities who were killed during its 15-year rule.
BJP's balancing act
LJP and JD (U) are two of the three major partners in the Bihar NDA -- the third being the BJP. The saffron party has, so far, kept away from the squabble -- and it has its own reasons for doing so. According to an Indian Express report, it has been indicated to the BJP that the party can have an equal number of MLC seats, but it will have to contest them on a BJP ticket without conceding any to the LJP.
The BJP would not want to shut doors on either of its two partners in Bihar, experts suggest, but it's a balancing act that the saffron party would have to negotiate carefully. Both the Paswans, on their part, have refrained from attacking the BJP, with Chirag even saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, in fact, his leader.
Redux of 2005?
The LJP, according to reports, could be looking to turn the clock back to 2005 and repeat a strategy it had then adopted. Then a part of the UPA, the LJP had put up candidates against the RJD, while not fielding candidates against the Congress -- an option it could try now with BJP and JD(U) as the new players.
Ironically, it was this that had eventually allowed JD(U) and BJP to come to power in the state after a hung assembly and another election a few months later.