Bihar politics returning to pre-2014 NDA days

NEW DELHI: More than seven months after chief minister Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) returned to the NDA camp, it looks like Bihar politics is slipping back to its pre-2014 days.
While the Nitish vs Lalu rhetoric has once again become the focal point in the state’s political scenario, JD (U)’s ally BJP is silently focusing on its organizational work ahead of the 2019 LS polls.Like the pre-2014 days, both the allies -- BJP and JD (U) -- have again started wooing the MBCs.
In the Opposition camp, former CM Lalu Prasad-led RJD enjoys good numbers in the state assembly, and Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav has so far not missed a single opportunity to target CM Kumar.
Though Lalu is currently in jail, he has managed to rope in former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi from NDA as part of his strategy to expand its base among scheduled castes, particularly mahadalits. Manjhi has entered the RJD camp at a time when Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP has joined the NDA.
However, all’s not well with the Congress following the decision of its four MLCs -- headed by its former president of Bihar unit Ashok Choudhary -- to join the JDU, and Congress is now facing a threat to keep its legislators (27 MLAs) together. If the Congress fails to get its act together in the state, it may find it hard to deal with RJD.