Bihar polls: Lalu Prasad may spoil Nitish Kumar’s dream to remain CM

PATNA: A pre-poll alliance between the ruling JD(U) and RJD seems difficult, with Lalu Prasad exhibiting his reluctance to accept Nitish Kumar as the prospective coalition’s leader. With the Janata parivar re-unification experiment not taking off, Kumar was keen on an electoral tie-up with RJD but Prasad is unlikely to settle the question on who should lead the coalition, raising doubts on whether the alliance would work.

A section of the Samajwadi Party leadership, including Ram Gopal Yadav, had opposed the Janata parivar merger on technical grounds till the Bihar assembly polls, a view seemingly endorsed by the RJD chief. The fact that Mulayam Singh has not clarified anything on the merger seems to indicate that the re-unification bid was being put on the backburner, at least for the time being.

But what has intrigued the JD(U) leadership is the ‘sudden change’ in Prasad’s behaviour. “Laluji has certainly started taking a critical view about the functioning of the Nitish Kumar government. This was not the case earlier, when he supported the government after the Lok Sabha polls. Laluji had also agreed earlier to the proposal of projecting Kumar as the CM candidate but he now has reservations in backing him,” a JD(U) leader said. According to this leader, RJD was playing hardball on a seat-sharing deal with Kumar.

The fact that the RJD chief had extended an open offer to Jitan Ram Manjhi to join the anti-BJP front in Bihar has upset Kumar. “It has come as a big teaser for us. By inviting Manjhji, Laluji has clearly indicated that he was open to forging an alliance with Manjhi, even at the expense of Kumar. Laluji was actually terrorising Nitishji into submission by propping up the name of Manjhiji,” a senior JD(U) functionary told ET.