‘We’ve come out of Nitish’s shadow’

An angry Bihar will punish its Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for ending the 17-year-old alliance with the NDA, BJP leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly, Sushil Modi, told Rasheeda Bhagat . Excerpts from an interview:

How do you read the BJP’s prospects; you’re clearly the frontrunner this time?

There is a clear Narendra Modi wave in Bihar this time for two reasons. Nitish Kumar broke this alliance in the name of Narendra Modi. Bihar’s people wanted this alliance to continue and make Modi the Prime Minister. After the split the way things have been affected — from law and order to development — people are angry. BJP Ministers who are very efficient worked hard and the party added to the credibility of the government.

People also want a strong government at the Centre and believe Modi can provide it.

Then will you be the main challenger to RJD-Congress rather than JD(U)?

RJD is becoming the main challenger.. normally the Opposition unites to remove the incumbent government. But here it is the opposite, the opposition is uniting to prevent the BJP.

Today, the JD(U)’s candidate from Kishanganj, Akhtarul Iman, has withdrawn in favour of the Congress’s sitting MP, a Muslim. Is this strategic?

This is due to Nitish’s hidden understanding with the Congress… all the three — Congress, JD(U) and Lalu want to stop Modi, so there is a tacit understanding in some places. In some places, they’ve put up candidates with the only intent to weaken the BJP.

In Bihar, caste factor rules supreme; this time have you turned the tables on Nitish by doing coalition of the extremes. The forward castes were always with you, now you’ve allied with Ram Vilas Paswan and given tickets to backward class candidates, too

In India, 80 per cent are backward; if you want to come to power, you have to take all sections with you. Last time in Bihar, even the Muslims had voted in substantial numbers for the BJP. For the five Assembly by-elections, we’ve fielded two Muslim candidates.

So how do you see the Muslim vote going?

Even though it might not be a good per cent, the BJP will get Muslim votes as the party’s image in Bihar is not anti-Muslim. But our work among Muslims is comparatively less. I don’t know how the Muslims will vote between the RJD-Congress and JD(U), but I’m hopeful a small number will come our way. We’ve never taken a fanatic stand.

The Muslims I’ve talked to here are still angry about 2002?

They’ll have to leave that behind. We’ve worked for Muslim welfare and never discriminated against them.

But is there a subtle kind of Hindutva at play in Bihar?

We have not consciously done anything; if such an agenda has come about on its own, we’re not responsible because we want to fight this election on development issues.

You did start with the development agenda, but along the way Hindutva has crept in with a bid to polarise…

How, you tell me…

Your manifesto has Ram Mandir, and then there is Amit Shah…

Ram mandir is there in every BJP manifesto and show me a single speech of Narendra Modi that is polarising. An NDA government appears almost certain. Will you move to the centre, or stay here to make a bid for Bihar’s chief ministership?

All that has to be decided by the party. I’ve worked for 40 years and will abide by Modi and the party’s decision.

The consensus here is that if Nitish had not left, the NDA would have swept, perhaps all 40 seats. Is there a pang of regret at his departure?

As I said, Bihar’s electorate never wanted this split. Though the BJP has gained by it, it has been a blessing in disguise as we’ve come out of Nitish’s shadow, but Bihar has lost. However good the governance be in the past, however good you might be, you can’t run an effective government if you don’t have a majority. It’s a minority government supported by four Congress MLAs.

How many seats would you predict for the NDA?

I never make number predictions. But the BJP will be the single-largest party. Bihar always votes decisively. Even in 1999, the NDA got 40 seats out of 54 (in undivided Bihar).

So Bihar has a history of voting on one side; in 1977 there was a clean sweep for the Janata Dal and Congress didn’t get a single seat. In the 2010 Assembly elections, we won three-fourths of the seats. To what do you attribute Lalu’s resurgence? Is it the sympathy factor?

Not sympathy. It’s the Yadavs, even though a good number of Yadavs are with the BJP, particularly in those constituencies where the RJD hasn’t put up a Yadav candidate. But still Lalu is their leader and he was removed from Parliament, so it’s more to regain power for the community than support for Lalu.

With the bureaucracy dominated by the forward classes, not with Nitish, I hear development work has been affected.

The simple fact is that he is running a minority government with support from the Congress. A minority government cannot take tough decisions. And instead of governance, he now has to spend a major part of his time on political management to rule out a revolt or a split in the party; 18 departments are lying vacant and he has not been able to expand his ministry.

Most major portfolios are with Nitish, right?

Yes, 19. This Government’s USP was governance, now governance has become the biggest casualty. Without a majority, no CM commands respect, so you can’t give other reasons.

A Patna industrialist I know says in his 40 years in Bihar, business and industry have never been so bad. Is it due to the lack of governance at the centre or Bihar-specific?

Central government is one part, but Bihar wasn’t that badly affected because unlike Gujarat or Maharashtra with a large manufacturing base, we have small industries. But the confidence which was there earlier has gone because the BJP is not part of the government.

With an NDA government at the Centre, will you demand special status for Bihar which Nitish has sought?

Modi has promised to help accelerate Bihar’s development and more than a special status, we need a special package. Under the special status, you get tax concessions and industries apply for licences, but then there is not enough land available here. That is the biggest limiting factor. But a special package will give the money needed for roads, bridges and pending railway projects.

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