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The inevitable has happened in Bihar, Nitish walks out of Lalu's company
Patna: Whatever his critics may say. Nitish Kumar had taken a right decision of resigning as chief minister of Bihar. There was no other option left if he had to maintain his Mr Clean image. His Janata Dal (united) party does not have a strong cadre; nor does it have a strong base in the state. So, the only thing which can keep him afloat is his image. That has remained in tact.
His friend-turned- enemy, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and some of his other political enemies may call his government life short and engineer defection from his party to dethrone him but because of that his main asset will remain with him.
He will be chosen again to lead some alliance as no other opposition leader carries image like him. The great grand alliance which may be formed by the opposition without him will not carry the same weight. There is no other credible face in any major opposition party.
The Congress which is main opposition is being led by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and both are linked to National Herald " fraud and breach of trust " case. Rahul in addition is facing criminal defecation case for making some comment on the RSS.
Lalu who is the worst critic of the BJP and uses anti-bjp-ism as his main plank has been charged with fraudulent withdrawal of money from a treasury which is now in Jharkhand state. His other family members have been named in a FIR against acquisition of properties through dubious deals.
Mamata Banerjee who is another BJP baiter and could lead the great grand alliance is also not a credible face. Some of his party men are linked to Chit fund scam but she has taken no action against them. Leaders down south have limited appeal and may not be acceptable to a majority of people in the north and the east. So, by leaving their company Nitish has created a vacuum which the opposition may find difficult to fill.
As far as defection is concerned, Lalu is a past-master in creating it. But that does not change Nitish's image and does not add any new feather in his cap.
He had succeeded in the previous election largely because of a false statement that the BJP and the RSS will take away job reservation which has been offered to the backward castes. Since he had quoted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in this regard voters believed him. The BJP made attempts to undo the damage but they failed to change their perception.
The FIR against his family would be gainfully used by the BJP in all future elections. Clearly, Lalu may be a bigger loser if any election is held immediately.
Lalu has levelled all kinds of allegations against him including one of committing a murder.There are unlikely to be many buyers of this story. It is also not true that Nitish has taken a sudden decision. It was in the offing right from the day FIR was filed. He had given enough hint about his future course of action. If Lalu did not read the writing on the wall it is not Nitish's fault.
The Congress could not have asked his son to resign because party chief minister in Himachal Pradesh has been charge-sheeted in a corruption case but he has not been asked to resign and is still continuing
Lalu, surprisingly, has talked of many things but so far not given any satisfactory answer to how his family members amassed wealth worth Rs 1000 crores.
As far as Nitish's alliance with BJP is concerned, the two are at least on the same page on corruption issue and acquisition of wealth through benami transaction. So in that sense it is a natural alliance and not a mismatch.
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