Lalu Yadav today dismissed reports that his alliance with Nitish Kumar in Bihar is in danger
For those questioning Lalu Yadav's alliance with
Nitish Kumar in Bihar, the 69-year-old political heavyweight has two questions of his own: "Am I a fool?" and "Do I look like Kalidas?"
The story goes that before becoming famous as a poet, Kalidas accidentally sawed off the tree branch he was perched on - self-interest downed in haste.
Lalu Yadav says similarly, he would be own-goaling if he decides to bring down the Bihar government by breaking with Nitish Kumar, who is Chief Minister. The Congress is the third member of their government.
Skid marks were visible from the start for the alliance, which was struck ahead of the Bihar election in 2015. They have been engorged since Nitish Kumar's decision earlier this month to support the BJP in the election for President of India. That means that he will be voting against the opposition, which has counted him as a stalwart leader, as well as against his allies.
The BJP's candidate is Ram Nath Kovind, former Governor of Bihar, work experience that Nitish Kumar says he has to reward. The opposition's nominee has a deeper connect to Bihar - former Speaker Meira Kumar, whose father, freedom fighter Jagjivan Ram, belonged to the state. Ms Kumar has represented Bihar in the Lok Sabha.
After Nitish Kumar announced his trotting across party lines, he was admonished severely and publicly by the Congress and Lalu Yadav, who warned him of "a historic blunder." The Chief Minister said he was willing to take his chances - after all, he reasoned, with the support of its allies and regional parties, the BJP is certain to win, so
why turn Meira Kumar, a Dalit leader, into a scapegoat?Because it's a battle of ideology, his allies answered, without the desired effect.
Local media reported that Lalu Yadav, whose children are being investigated for corrupt land deals by central agencies including the CBI, was covertly
negotiating with the BJP in Delhi to pull out of the Bihar government. About which he offers the Kalidas analogy. While daughter Misa Bharti, a parliamentarian, and sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi, both Bihar ministers, are being investigated, Lalu Yadav would like to have the weight of a politician in power.
In fact, it is Nitish Kumar who is being seen as weighing a reboot of his
earlier partnership with the BJP, one that lasted 17 years till he scissored in 2013 over the BJP's decision to pick then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. The co-signing with BJP on the Preisdent of India is an exception, he has clarified, even as his allies say that motivated by the Prime Minister's immense approval ratings, he is working on recasting his loyalties ahead of the next general election in 2019.