Patna: In the last 24 hours, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has spoken on the phone to both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, the mother-son combine that runs the Congress. The calls were made as the Bihar government, of which the Congress is a member, appears to be ungluing rapidly.
Nitish Kumar's party, the Janata Dal-United governs the state along with the Congress and Lalu Yadav. Last Friday, Lalu Yadav, 71 and his son, Tejashwi Yadav, were named in a CBI case for corruption and their homes and offices were raided. Sonia Gandhi phoned Lalu Yadav to express her party's support. So did leaders like Mamata Banerjee, agreeing that the case is another example of the central government's blatant persecution of its opponents. Nitish Kumar offered no such fist-bump, which amplified talk of the alliance in Bihar running out of juice.
The tension in Bihar is propitiated, though only barely, by Nitish Kumar agreeing to remain among a stack of 18 opposition parties that are fighting the BJP on the election of the Vice President of India which will be held on August 5. The calls from the Gandhis thanked him for that gesture. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and the former Governor of Bengal, is the opposition's nominee. The BJP and its allies have yet to declare their candidate.
The first-off-the-block action in picking the Vice President contender is a reaction to that accusation.
Nitish Kumar, mindful of his reputation as an honest administrator, is increasingly sure that they are a liability, said sources in his party, and is open to orbiting around the BJP instead.
Nitish Kumar's party, the Janata Dal-United governs the state along with the Congress and Lalu Yadav. Last Friday, Lalu Yadav, 71 and his son, Tejashwi Yadav, were named in a CBI case for corruption and their homes and offices were raided. Sonia Gandhi phoned Lalu Yadav to express her party's support. So did leaders like Mamata Banerjee, agreeing that the case is another example of the central government's blatant persecution of its opponents. Nitish Kumar offered no such fist-bump, which amplified talk of the alliance in Bihar running out of juice.
The tension in Bihar is propitiated, though only barely, by Nitish Kumar agreeing to remain among a stack of 18 opposition parties that are fighting the BJP on the election of the Vice President of India which will be held on August 5. The calls from the Gandhis thanked him for that gesture. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and the former Governor of Bengal, is the opposition's nominee. The BJP and its allies have yet to declare their candidate.
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The first-off-the-block action in picking the Vice President contender is a reaction to that accusation.
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Nitish Kumar, mindful of his reputation as an honest administrator, is increasingly sure that they are a liability, said sources in his party, and is open to orbiting around the BJP instead.
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