Post Jharkhand poll rout, BJP-JDU spar over ‘change in CM face’

This is not the first time the BJP leaders have demanded for a change of face. While one section is pushing for its own candidate, others, prefer to go under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar.

A day after Jharkhand assembly election results were announced, the blame game has already started in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar with a few BJP leaders once again demanding a “change in face.”

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being garlanded in Sheohar, Bihar on Monday 23 December. (HT Photo)

The latest round of barbs comes even though BJP and JD (U) leaders claimed that the Jharkhand results will have no impact on NDA in Bihar and that the ruling coalition “was firm and intact”.

On Tuesday, former Nokha MLA and senior BJP leader, Rameshwar Chaurasia, said, “People are fed up now seeing one face again and again. This happens in every field. Bihar also needs to have a new face.”

The BJP leader’s demand did not go well with the alliance partner, the JD (U). “There are some faces which are tested, accepted and charismatic. Figures like late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Karpoori Thakur, Nitish Kumar, PM Narendra Modi, etc., fall in this category. We don’t think there is a need to change the face. BJP national president had made an announcement in this regard,” said JD (U) principal general secretary K C Tyagi.

The senior JD (U) leader instead blamed the BJP for not taking along its allies together. “Had they taken along with them alliance partners like AJSU Party, the results would have been different in Jharkhand,” he said.Tyagi’s view was seconded by JD (U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan who also blamed the lack of alliance in Jharkhand as one of the principal reasons for BJP’s defeat.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

This is not the first time that BJP leaders have demanded for a change of face. While one section is pushing for its own candidate, others, including deputy chief minister (CM) Sushil Kumar Modi, prefer to go to the polls under leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Earlier, former union minister and BJP MLC Sanjay Paswan and Union minister Giriraj Singh had suggested that Kumar should make way for a leader from the saffron party for the top post in the state, which led to a sharp response from the JD (U).

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi stepped in to clarify that the incumbent CM was the NDA “Captain” in Bihar and will remain so. However, Modi’s message does not seem to have gone down well within a section of the BJP.The matter was put to rest by BJP national president and Union home minister Amit Shah in October who made it clear that his party would contest the 2020 Bihar assembly elections in alliance with the JD (U) and under Kumar’s leadership.