In Bihar, silence at top rings loud

PATNA: The war of words between the RJD and the JDU shows no sign of let-up, with chief minister Nitish Kumar's party members overwhelmingly backing walking out of the Grand Alliance and Lalu Prasad's leaders harping on their party's bigger numerical strength. An RJD leader, who spoke under cover of anonymity, said: "The trouble is that only spokespersons are doing the talking. Nitish and Lalu are not speaking with each other, even on phone." The leader insisted that the chief minister is not coming on the phone when Lalu calls. JDU spokesperson Dr Ajay Alok admitted: "The Grand Alliance is now looking like a peeled orange." At the JDU state executive committee meeting on Tuesday, 27 of 29 speakers favoured snapping of ties with the RJD, said sources in the know. "We may not have a big caste consolidation backing us, but we have your image among the masses which keeps the party hopeful," a senior JDU leader is learnt to have said in the meeting, addressing Nitish. Others said the support of the JDU was being eroded because of the party's association with the RJD. The leader also highlighted what he called the dominance of one caste at the grassroots level and the lack of cooperation between the workers of the two parties. Only energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav and former speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary warned against breaking the alliance. "But the two were in a hopeless minority," said an insider. "Choudhary was even heckled and had to cut short his speech." The question being asked in private conversations in both parties is if Nitish has already made up his mind to leave the alliance. "Even if we concede the demand of Tejashwi's resignation, what is the guarantee that the JDU will not raise another issue as a pretext to walk out of the alliance?" asked an RJD leader. JDU state president Bashishtha Narayan Singh hinted that the party was not satisfied with the defence Tejashwi Yadav offered on the CBI FIR against him. "Nitish ji has led two coalition governments. He set a benchmark in the previous government on this issue. Why are they (RJD) expecting that he will change his benchmark? He is the same man," said Bashishtha Narayan. He said more questions have risen after Tejashwi's reply. "When one is in public life there are certain standards," the JDU state president stressed, and hinted that Nitish would take action soon. "Give him time. The party is with him," Bashishtha added. RJD leaders remained defiant. "We are the party with 80 MLAs. There is no question of Tejashwi resigning," said RJD state president Ram Chandra Purbey. JDU's Alok hit back, saying: "If one starts counting the number of MLAs, how can we be an alliance? Then we are individual parties." Senior Congress leader Sadanand Singh pleaded that Lalu and Nitish should talk to each other. "We should have a coordination committee of leaders of the three parties where we can thrash out our differences," Sadanand said. (The Telegraph Calcutta)