The Hindu : National : Hard lobbying in BJP for Deputy Chief Minister post

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 23, 2005

National

National

Hard lobbying in BJP for Deputy Chief Minister post

Neena Vyas

It was a bipolar election — a direct fight between the NDA and the RJD-Congress alliance, says Jaitley

PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

PAT FROM VETERAN: The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, greets Janta Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: It was a nine-year long gestation after the unbroken political marriage between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United) that finally resulted in the birth of a National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar. And, naturally, it was big celebration time at the BJP office here on Tuesday as one `leader' after another entered the party premises to the sound of "explosions" from firecrackers and the deafening beat of drums.

The two parties had fought elections in Bihar nine times as partners — four Lok Sabha elections in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 and three Assembly elections in 2000, February 2005 and now — BJP leaders pointed out. Finally their goal of sweeping the Rashtriya Janata Dal out of office was achieved and that was the reason for the smiles all around.

A meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board is scheduled for Wednesday morning where the nitty-gritty of power sharing would be discussed. Top of the agenda would be the question of a BJP Deputy Chief Minister in the new Nitish Kumar government to be sworn in on Thursday afternoon on the completion of formalities of the election of a leader of the NDA Bihar legislature party on Wednesday evening.

Before the NDA legislature party meeting, separate meetings of the legislature parties of the JD(U) and the BJP will be held where they will elect their own leaders.

Party general secretary and `prabhari' (in-charge) of Bihar Arun Jaitley said that the issue of a BJP Deputy Chief Minister was "no issue at all." The impression he gave was that he did not think that this would become a roadblock for a smooth government formation in Bihar.

Hard lobbying

However, hard lobbying for this position had already begun in the BJP office. While some expressed the view that this post should go to Shahnawaz Hussain to give the right signal to the minorities who may be wary of a new government that included the BJP, there were others who felt that the upper castes that had consolidated solidly behind the BJP should not be ignored. So far, it seems, no decision has yet been made by the BJP, nor has the issue of power sharing been thrashed out in detail with the chief ministerial candidate, Nitish Kumar, and his party, the JD(U).

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