Bihar opens BJP-Sena rift

NEW DELHI: Conflicting interests inthe coming assembly elections in Bihar and Maharashtra have forced the only twoideologically compatible parties in NDA — BJP and Shiv Sena — totake differing positions on parliamentary strategy. BJP would like to take the"tainted" ministers'' issue to its logical conclusion; the Sena wants tosoftpedal it.If BJP — and its ally in Bihar — are keento place railway minister Lalu Prasad and his band of "tainted" ministers— Taslimuddin, M A Fatmi and Jaiprakash Yadav — in the dock ahead ofthe elections in Bihar, the Shiv Sena''s considerations for the Maharashtraelections are altogether different.In the recent Lok Sabhaelections, the Sena-BJP combine won just one of the seven seats in Mumbai— South-Central Mumbai retained by Sena MP Mohan Rawle — Senasources say, because it had alienated the all-important Bihar-UP vote in themetropolis. The Sena feels that to target Lalu Prasad — hero to manymigrants from Bihar and UP — would be counter-productive.Thisimpact of the division in NDA ranks is beginning to show. First, the BJP wasforced by allies Shiv Sena, TDP and Akali Dal to backtrack on its initialstatement that it would block all parliamentary business till the "tainted"ministers were dropped, limit its boycott to the presentation of the railwaybudget, and dilute it to focus the attack on the ministers.OnTuesday, a five-member sub-committee was set up to put in the fine print intothe method of targeting the "tainted" ministers. That committee announced thatduring the Question Hour, NDA will boycott any reply/statement by "tainted"ministers. But on Wednesday itself, BJP was not able to implement this. BJP''s GL Bhargava sought an assurance from Lalu Prasad that railways would help tobuild a metro in his constituency, Jaipur. Lalu did not miss the opportunity: Herose to say that his ministry would cooperate even though Bhargava, in hiscapacity as chairperson of a parliamentary committee on housing, had been lessthan cooperative to him.