The much talked about virtual meeting of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) which was expected to happen today, did not happen. This had strengthened the speculations that all was not well within this 28 party bloc.
The news about this meet, which as per reports was being convened to elect Bihar Chief Minister and the newly appointed Janata Dal (United) Nitish Kumar as the convenor of the alliance, was incidentally floated in by pro-Nitish sources.
After removing Munger Member of Parliament Lalan Singh as the national president of the party last week, Kumar has been sending out signals, mostly indirectly, that he was not happy with being denied a ‘big’ responsibility in this alliance, which he sees as his ‘baby’.
A certain section within the largest party of this alliance, the Congress, are though wary of giving a big responsibility like convener to Nitish given his history of changing stances at the drop of hat.
Sources said that while party leader Rahul Gandhi is okay in acceding to the demands of Nitish Kumar, the other leaders, including other members of Gandhi family are suspicious of what Nitish’s game plan is.
Secondly, once Nitish becomes the convenor of this alliance, RJD and Congress , atleast in Bihar, will have little room to bargain when it comes to seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections which alliance leaders are hoping will throw up a fractured mandate.
If this happens, the party with the largest MP share will be in position to bargain for its share in the pie which includes the chair of Prime Minister. As a result, despite more than six months of the alliance holding its first meeting in Patna on 23 June, it has not been able to arrive at a face for convener. The elections are now less than 70 days away.
Kumar knows that in case the alliance performs well, which will lead to a fall in the number of seats that will be won by the BJP, the support of JDU leader in this eventuality will be aggressively sought by both Congress and BJP and hence he is adamant about securing the largest number of seats for JDU in Bihar, something which can only happen if he is able to restrict the demands of the RJD and the Congress.