Patna: The state polls are more than a year away but a nasty battle has erupted within the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar over who will be the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the elections due in October next year.
So far, three top leaders have staked their claim for the post, badly sullying the party’s public image. The BJP is now finding it hard to bring the situation under control as the fire of rebellion spreads fast and wide.
The battle to grab the top post began soon after a section of party leaders sought to project former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate during the two-day meeting of the State Working Committee concluded on Sunday.
Raising the issue at the meet attended by several top leaders, federal agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh urged the party to go to polls under Modi’s leadership.
“If we want to form the next government in Bihar, we must go to polls under the leadership of Modi. Moreover, he as the former deputy [chief minister] has enough experience to run a government,” Singh said. However, his appeal seems to have opened a Pandora’s box for the party as several top leaders are now coming forward to stake their claims for the post.
The first to stake his claim publicly was former minister Prem Kumar, who held many key portfolios in the previous National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar. He demanded that the BJP project a person from an extremely backward class (EBC), such as him, to take on the might of the ruling party, which has launched a united move among the scattered pro-Mandal forces to gain the support of the weaker classes.
“In view of my seniority and strong presence among the EBCs, I am the best suited person to lead the party. The BJP leadership should give me the chance to lead,” Kumar said on Wednesday, adding he has been with the party for the past four decades. “I am ready for the new role now,” he said.
In another twist, a senior leader and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav, wants the post to be given to a “tea-seller” like him to help the party make an empathic win in the coming polls. While he only claimed he, like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too once sold tea, his supporters demanded that Yadav be projected as the future chief minister of the party to make huge gains.
“Yes, I did everything from serving tea to samosas (a kind of Indian delicacy) but that can’t be the sole criterion for selecting anyone [to lead the party],” Yadav told the media. According to his supporters, prior to joining politics, Yadav worked in a canteen in a local theatre where he would serve tea and samosas to movie-goers.
During the run-up to the recently-held Lok Sabha polls, a senior BJP leader suggested former federal minister and the party’s minority face Syed Shahnawaz Hussain for the post claiming he has good appeal in both the communities and his projection would fetch a good number of votes from the minority class. The list does not end here. There are quite a few senior leaders who nurse chief ministerial ambitions.
Observers say the ongoing tug-of-war among the senior leaders for the key post is all set to deal a severe blow to BJP’s plan to form the next government in the state. At the two-day meeting of the working committee, the party had set the target of winning 175 out of total 243 seats in the Bihar assembly.
However, the state BJP chief Mangal Pandey denied any conflict in the party stating that the issue would be decided by the party’s parliamentary board.
