New developments in BJP hints at Sushil Kumar Modi’s fall in party?

PATNA: Life seems to have come full circle for former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) as the two unrelated incidents in the party since Wednesday — misbehaviour by its MLC and former state party vice-president

Lal Babu Prasad

with a woman lawmaker from the NDA alliance partner and his suspension as primary member on Friday and the reconstitution of Bihar BJP by its new state chief a day before — point to his fall in the party affairs, feel observers. Lal Babu is considered close to SuMo.

Observers were quick to read that the supporters of SuMo in the state BJP had been ignored as they did not find a place among the state office-bearers. The faces included are new and have been picked up by state BJP chief Nityanand Rai. However, the marginalization of SuMo in the state BJP was something that had been expected by the party’s lower-rung workers, but the 249-member state party executive committee with 31 office-bearers seems to be purported to complete the process. Also, Rai’s appointment in September last year had surprised many, because the probable names floating in the speculative market belonged to the SuMo loyalist camp.

Indeed, as the observers feel, Modi’s marginalization began from the 2014 parliamentary elections itself, as he, like a few others, was not invited to campaign for the then Gujarat CM NaMo (Narendra Modi) in the Varanasi parliamentary constituency that he was contesting as the party’s PM candidate. Already, SuMo’s closeness to CM Nitish during the NDA rule had irked the “PM-Amit Shah duo”.

Thereafter, the reasons for the debacle of the BJP-led NDA in the Bihar assembly elections in 2015 was put at the door of the state leadership, with the observation that if the “PM-Shah duo” had not campaigned, the NDA’s performance would have been far more poor. Against the buoy that the BJP-led NDA would form the government, the combination could win only 58 assembly seats, including 53 by the BJP, in the 243-member House.

Last year, the hype in the state BJP was that SuMo would be selected as the party’s nominee for the Rajya Sabha seat from the state, but it was his bête noire and former state BJP chief Gopal Narain Singh who was actually selected.

That apart, unlike SuMo, his subordinates in the state unit’s hierarchy like former state chiefs Nand Kishore Yadav, Mangal Pandey and Rai were invited to campaign in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh (UP) during its recently concluded assembly elections.