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NDA in Bihar fails to agree on Rajya Sabha by-poll

Soroor Ahmad in Patna

Three allies, and two-and-a-half differing stands.

That's the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar as of today, March 28. And tomorrow, there is a by-election happening. To the Rajya Sabha.

The Samata Party, after its legislature meeting Tuesday afternoon, has decided on Independent Rajni Ranjan Sahu. It issued a whip in his favour. The Bharatiya Janata Party too prefers the man, but no whip for him.

The Janata Dal United, however, doesn't really like Sahu. So no declaration of support and no whip.

"Why should we issue whip? Is Sahu our candidate? Whip cannot be applied in this case," said Laxmi Sahu, the JD-U's Bihar spokesman.

Rajni Sahu, a former Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress, threw in his hat following the death of Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Jagdambi Mandal. While the RJD has put up a Buddhist monk, Dhamma Viriyo, the NDA has no candidate this time around.

Viriyo, who hails from Darjeeling in West Bengal, is a former National Minorities Commission member. He is an old associate of former prime minister V P Singh and was during 1993-94 in the forefront of the movement to restore the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya to Buddhists.

Explaining the NDA strategy, Samata spokesman P K Sinha said that instead of fielding an alliance candidate "we decided to support the Congressman who is contesting as independent as he may be able to win votes of the Congress MLAs as well."

However, BPCC acting chief Chandan Bagchi said that there was no question of the Congress MLAs supporting Sahu.

Central leaders of Congress, Mohsina Kidwai, the Bihar in-charge, and Ajit Jogi, are arriving in Patna Tuesday night to discuss the Rajya Sabha by-poll and the distribution of portfolios.

The NDA has not put up any candidate for the by-poll for the lone legislative council seat either. While state BJP spokesperson Kiran Ghai denied that there was any confusion among the constituents over the support to the Rajya Sabha candidate, the different views expressed by the partners expose the contradiction within.

Last week, three RJD, one Congress, two BJP, one Samata and one JMM candidates had managed to win eight Rajya Sabha seats unopposed. This became possible when the JD-U-backed Kamla Sinha, after much persuasion, withdrew to favour R K Anand of the JMM.

This time however there appears quite a bit of unhealthy conflict within the alliance.

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