Maharashtra crisis creates ripples in Bihar, Karnataka
New Delhi, July 4
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) breakup has raised anxieties in the Opposition camp with concerns being expressed over a possible Maharashtra replay in Bihar and Karnataka, where the JD(U), RJD and Congress are in power.
Signs of unease are palpable in Bihar with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar meeting party MLAs and MPs one on one at his Patna residence in a bid to keep his flock together and his close aide and state minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary today accusing the BJP of attempting to destabilise the state government.
Adding to these speculations, LJP leader Chirag Paswan, who is expected to rejoin the NDA anytime now, on Tuesday predicted a “major JD(U) split”.
Chaudhary said the BJP “hated Bihar because the state was back on the national centre stage after Nitish Kumar hosted the Opposition parties in Patna”.
“So the BJP is trying to do a Maharashtra here. But, the Mahagathbandhan is too strong,” the JD(U) leader noted, rejecting demands of resignation of deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who was yesterday named as an accused in the land for job scam by the CBI. In Congress-ruled Karnataka, former CM and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy’s remarks “the state will have its Ajit Pawar moment” have raised alarm in the Congress camp.
What has made these remarks even more significant is today’s backing by BJP veteran and parliamentary board member BS Yediyurappa.
“Whatever Kumaraswamy is saying is true and I wish to support his statement…. Kumaraswamy and the BJP will fight together in the future,” Yediyurappa said today although he quickly downplayed the BJP-JDS alliance signal, adding, “I cannot say anything. The central leadership will decide.” The BJP-led NDA, (which included the JD(U) then), had won 39 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and 25 of Karnataka’s 28 in 2019.
The BJP wants to repeat these performances in 2024 but faces challenges from the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine in Bihar and a resurgent Congress in Karnataka.
