Ault lines emerging between artners BJP and JD(U) in Bihar
Signs of unease een the Bharatiya Janata and the Janata Dal (United) issues including caste-based meration and the Pegasus ping row have begun surfacearly nine months after the es formed a coalition govent in Bihar. har chief minister Nitish ar, along with a delegation position leaders in the state, meet Prime Minister Narenmodi on August 23, to push caste-based census, a longing demand of many parties believe the reservation syss no longer representative of emographic split of the popon across castes. The BJP has reluctant to touch the sensissue (as, indeed, any party in er in the Centre has been) for of a political backlash. A census was conducted in but its results were not sed. tatus quo-ist forces and e who are anti-change are nst the decision to have a -based enumeration,” JD(U) ral secretary KC Tyagi said, ring to the BJP’S reluctance caste-based census. “These s fear that if the percentage BCS is higher than the 52% ded by the Mandal Commiscussed sion, there might be a demand for more quota.”
He said that the JD(U) is also in favour of doing away with the present cap of 50% on all quotas.
The current reservation regime in India is based on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission dating back to the 1980s and a Supreme Court ruling capping reservations at 50%.
The Bihar assembly, in 2019 and 2020, passed a resolution seeking a caste-based census. The resolutions were supported by the BJP. A socio-economic and caste census was conducted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2011, but the caste data was not released. India’s last caste census was conducted in 1931.
The demands for the castebased enumeration come soon after the Bihar CM also called for a probe into the Pegasus issue. “Phone tapping has been dis
for a long time. One never knows how one’s phone can be tapped these days. So, there must be a probe,” the CM said on August 2. The Bjp-led Centre on Monday refrained from confirming or denying in the Supreme Court its use of the spyware for alleged surveillance.
The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that the phones of Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 that were potentially targeted by Pegasus, Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software.
Another instance of fissures emerged on Wednesday when Bihar water resources minister Sanjay Jha countered the Union government’s claim that 14.6 million water connections were provided in the state under the Centre’s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) for rural households. Crediting the state government, Jha tweeted: “Thanks to vision of Hon CM Shri @Nitishkumar, 87% of Bihar rural households have access to clean tap water.”
Asked if a difference of opinion would hurt the alliance, a JD(U) leader speaking on condition of anonymity said that both the parties were working to fulfil their individual commitments.
“The BJP has been working to fulfil its ideological concerns, whether it is the construction of the Ram Temple or abrogation of Article 370 to nurse its constituency. We are not a frontal organisation (of the BJP), we are a separate party that has the right to nurse our constituency without confrontation,” the leader said.
Meanwhile, there are speculations in the state that the JD(U) cadre wants the party to contest the Manipur and Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year on its own.
“There is a sense among party workers that to retain its position as a bigger partner in Bihar and to increase its presence across the country, the JD(U) should contest elections on its own and not rely on allies,” the second JD(U) leader cited above said. To be sure, the BJP actually won more seats than the JD(U) in the 2020 assembly elections -- 74 to 43 in 243-member assembly.
Tyagi said that the party’s priority is to continue its alliance with the BJP, even as he said that the JD(U) can contest independently in the two states in case no agreement can be reached with the BJP.
“We have conveyed to the Prime Minister and the party leadership that we are keen to contest as allies. But if that does not happen, we will contest alone,” he said.