BJP prepares to join battle for Lalooland

NEW DELHI: Bihar assembly elections are almost an year away, but BJP is already working on reviving its fortunes there. Battered in the recent General Elections, the party is now hoping to capitalise on Union steel, chemicals and fertilizers minister Ram Vilas Paswan''s apparent unhappiness with his new portfolio by weaning him away before the Assembly elections.
A senior Bihar leader said Paswan''s absence from the NDA line-up in the state this time made a big difference to the final results.But he added that even though Paswan was unhappy, he could be lured back to the NDA - perhaps if he was promised Bihar chief minister''s post, if the NDA wins. But this, he stressed, could only be done if top JD(U) leaders like Nitish Kumar—himself a chief ministerial aspirant—and George Fernandes agreed. BJP''s most likely CM candidate, Sushil Mody, is now the newly elected MP from Bhagalpur.
BJP sources admitted that it would be difficult to dislodge Laloo despite the state government''s poor performance. BJP will, therefore, try again to breach the social combination he holds sway over, while keeping the BJP-JD(U) combine going.
The party also felt that NDA was handicapped because Jai Narayan Nishad was denied the Muzaffarpur ticket. Fernandes contested from that seat as Nitish Kumar wished to contest from Barh as well as Nalanda, Fernandes''s old constituency. Though BJP tried to ensure Nishad was given VIP treatment as a campaigner, the Nishad community was apparently disappointed with its leader being denied a ticket.
BJP also knows Laloo will use his eight RJD ministers at the Centre—two Cabinet, one MoS with independent charge and five MoSs—of whom three are Yadavs, two Muslims, and two Thakurs, to strengthen his position. Laloo has already begun wooing JD(U) members in Bihar. On Monday, when Laloo took over as railway minister, he praised his predecessor in office, Nitish Kumar.
Aware of his political dexterity, BJP is trying to dent the formidable presence RJD has in the Union government by raising the issue that four of the ministers, including Laloo, are chargesheeted.