Nitish hammer leaves RJD and LJP gasping

PATNA: The NDA government���s decision to ensure reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in the state judicial services has further complicated the revival plans of its rivals ��� RJD and LJP. The decision to introduce quota in the judicial services comes at a time when the RJD-LJP combine is busy charting its strategy to cut its political losses in the state. Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan have been planning a series of street protests against the chief minister.

If Mr Prasad decided to sit on a dharna in the state Capital the other day, his LJP ally also subsequently decided to do an encore and staged dharna to target the Nitish Kumar government. Clearly, they were fast positioning for a battle which they hope will get them back to winning ways.

But the NDA government���s move to introduce quota in the judicial services is being seen as a big setback for both
RJD and LJP leaderships which once again seem to have been politically out-manoeuvered by Mr Kumar. It is now widely believed that the quota move will further help consolidate the NDA���s base in the OBC and Dalit space. It will make things all the more difficult for the RJD-LJP combine to hold on to their support base which could now be more inclined to gravitate towards the NDA camp .

No wonder, RJD is now having to defend itself over the quota development and has even claimed that it had done the necessary groundwork when in power for facilitating reservation in state judicial services. ���But then we could not introduce the reservation because of legal constraints. We had done the ground work on the basis of which the NDA government has introduced reservation in the judicial services,��� maintained RJD senior leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan .

This is not the first time NDA has managed to score brownie points over the rival RJD by pushing through such policy decisions. During the past few years, the ruling NDA is credited with several policy decisions which helped it augmenting its vote bank and in turn adversely impacting the political fortunes of the opposition parties.

The decision to provide reservation to the extremely backward castes (EBCs) in the panchyat bodies, constitution of Mahdalit Commission, life long pension facility for the parents of those who were killed in the 1989 Bhagalpur communal riots besides fencing of the graveyards, have all proved to be politically rewarding for NDA. But the new development allowing reservation in judiciary will further create a win-win situation for NDA and in particular the JD(U).