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Senior Samata Party leader and Defence Minister George Fernandes is paying the price for his proximity to the prime minister by incurring the wrath of not only the Opposition but also constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance government, including his own Samata Party.
Leading the onslaught is his senior party colleague and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar who has joined hands with Cabinet colleagues Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan to counter Fernandes's clout.
"Fernandes sahib used his proximity to the prime minister to decide which among us should be made a minister, which some of us did not like," pointed out Janata Dal (United) deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Devendra Prasad Yadav.
"Now that he is in trouble, we are not exactly unhappy," Yadav revealed.
NDA partners have been visibly reluctant to help Fernandes ward off the barbs directed at him by the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament.
Even his colleagues in the Cabinet have not been of any help, leaving the defence minister to fend for himself.
Fernandes' behind-the-scenes game of one-upmanship with Nitish Kumar reached a crescendo when the former sought to influence Vajpayee to induct Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as railway minister.
If he had prevailed, Kumar might have been saddled with an insignificant portfolio or worse, jettisoned from the Cabinet altogether.
Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have their own reasons for teaming up with Kumar. They were 'divested' of their high profile civil aviation and communications portfolios in exchange for less 'glamourous' ones.
At a meeting in Sharad Yadav's residence a few days ago, the three discussed the possibility of the merger of the Samata Party and Paswan's Lok Janashakti Party with the JD(U) after realising that presenting a united front is the only way to increase their clout with the prime minister.
The ploy seems to have succeeded with seven Samata Party MPs aligning themselves with Kumar leaving Digvijay Singh and Sreenivas Prasad, both ministers, in Fernandes' kitty.
Additionally, the breakaway faction of Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has thrown in its lot with Kumar, Sharad Yadav and Paswan. The faction has the support of three RJD Lok Sabha MPs - Nagmani, Sukhdeo Paswan and Anwar Ul-Haq.
Moreover, two BJP Lok Sabha MPs from Jharkhand - Ravindra Kumar Pandey (Giridih) and Madan Prasad Jaiswal (Bettiah) - have thrown in their lot with Fernandes' foes.
With the Congress's censure motion against Fernandes's re-induction to come up for discussion shortly, his foes are rubbing their hands with glee.
"Fernandes will realise that it does not pay to play politics with your own people," Devendra Prasad Yadav said.
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