There was new sparking today in the alliance that governs Bihar, with 27-year-old Tejashwi Yadav, who is Deputy Chief Minister of the state, accusing boss Nitish Kumar of blatant opportunism and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi of part-timing in politics.
Tejashwi Yadav's father, Lalu Yadav, has accused the Chief Minister of "a historic blunder" in supporting their rival BJP in the election for President of India. The Congress is their junior partner in the Bihar government and has led the initiative to field former Speaker Meira Kumar, who is from Bihar, as the candidate of a united opposition against the BJP, Ram Nath Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar till last week. Both candidates are Dalits.
Nitish Kumar's party is not ignoring the critique.
Tejashwi Yadav's appraisal was expressed in his "Dil Ki Baat", a series of columns that he pats on Facebook and Twitter, a practice inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's immensely popular "Mann Ki Baat" radio addresses.
Mr Gandhi, 47, has commissioned considerable criticism by deciding to travel abroad for a holiday with his mother while his party tries to serve as the glue keeping the opposition together.
Lalu Yadav and the Congress are both aware of the likely consequences of Nitish Kumar and the BJP voting together- a renewal of a long partnership that ended in 2013 with unseemly exchanges of recriminations.
When the Yadavs' properties were recently raided by tax officials in connection with the corruption cases, Lalu Yadav tweeted that the BJP was welcome to its new allies. Nitish Kumar's party bristled at the innuendo that they had in some way assisted or encouraged the searches. Lalu Yadav clarified that what he meant was that the CBI was serving as the government's hit-man. But the explanation was weak and was quickly demolished by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who told NDTV that documents that allegedly incriminated the Yadavs had in fact been purveyed by Nitish Kumar's party.
The Chief Minister says there is a fundamental flaw in this criticism: it overlooks the fact that the opposition is knowingly leading to defeat "a daughter of Bihar". The BJP and its allies have enough regional parties in their pyramid to prop up Ram Nath Kovind all the way to the top. Does Meira Kumar not deserve more than a losing chance, he has asked.
While he, like the Congress and Lalu Yadav, has asserted that their combine in Bihar is not being tested by their differences over the Presidential election, the daily jousting demonstrates the growing crater that the alliance has run into.
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