From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: The appointment of Governor Ganga Prasad in poll-bound Meghalaya, which is already witnessing a political churning, from far away Bihar with no link with the domestic scene might alter the ruling NDA coalition at the Centre as well as in the cow belt state.
With the appointment of Prasad, the gubernatorial aspirations of Bihar leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose party the Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) is an ally of the NDA in Delhi and the state, have been disregarded.
Now, Manjhi is angry at the way BJP has ignored him till date. Sources say Manjhi had joined NDA with the promise that he would be made the Governor and his son too would be suitably “accommodated”.
More than two years after joining the BJP-led alliance, Manjhi still awaits a reward whereas Prasad, his BJP colleague from Bihar, was given the plum post.
At present, besides Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U) and HAM, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) headed by Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha is a coalition partner of NDA.
RLSP too is upset over neither BJP nor JD(U) doling out benefits like gubernatorial appointments.
Amid reports of Manjhi drifting towards the grand alliance, his arch-rival and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar visited the HAM leader’s native village in Gaya on Wednesday and announced many projects.
The move was said to be part of the NDA’s strategy to keep Manjhi in good humour till the next 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Curiously, it was Kumar who had deprived him of the throne in February 2015 with the help of RJD.
Kushwaha is also unhappy with Nitish’s re-entry into the NDA camp. The RLSP leader was told to resign from the Union cabinet by BJP though he refused to do that.
On the other hand, reports said RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav too has no problem in projecting Kushwaha as the chief ministerial candidate.
Both the coalition partners are said to be unhappy with the kind of treatment being meted out to them by the BJP which has asked its
(Contd on P-10)