Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar faces another challenge

Patna: "I and Nitish have become old and we should retire", opined Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav a couple of weeks back. It was preceded by a statement by his wife Rabri Devi that his eldest son who is deputy chief minister in Bihar deserved promotion. The third irritant to state chief minister Nitish Kumar is that his deputy has been skipping his officials functions for the past few weeks.

His absence during other functions was largely ignored but his absence during launching of a free Wi-Fi scheme for colleges, his pet project for students, on Wednesday , has irked his supporters and they have made their displeasure known to him.

Where all this will lead to is difficult to predict with any accuracy at present but, clearly, the marriage between the two parties, RJD and Janata Dal (U) of Nitish, has run into a rough weather.

It was not a natural marriage because the two held different views on many issues. But it has survived so far because none is in favour of perpetrating the crisis at this stage.

The relationship between the two soured because of Nitish's soft corner for Prime Minister Naredra Modi. He has publicly praised Modi on more than one occasion. Lalu was aghast when he welcomed note-bank scheme of Modi which was condemned by all other oppositions.

Later, ignoring his criticism, he appealed to Modi to go all-out for reservation of seats for women in parliament and state legislatures.

Much is being read in between these lines because Nitish had formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party before the pact with Lalu and this keeps haunting him.

Lalu cannot publicly say anything in favour of the BJP because anti-BJPism is his main plank and he has successfully used it in different elections. The two may go for a divorce but at a more opportune time.