By Arun Srivastava
The developments in the BJP over the last ten days relating to the nomination of the party candidate for the Bankipur by poll in Bihar assembly reveal the tussle between the BJP President Nitin Nabin and the all powerful Home Minister Amit Shah. At the end, Shah prevailed by compelling Nabin to withdraw his own candidate and nominate Shah’s chosen Neeraj Kumar Sinha. Bankipur constituency fell vacant due to the resignation of Nitin Nabin as he was nominated President of BJP The polling date is July 30 this year.
Since Nabin was handpicked for the job of national president, following his running feud with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on the issue of the national president of BJP, Shah did not object to his appointment. But the fact he did not like Nabin has been a known truth inside the saffron ecosystem. Nabin used the opportunity of selecting the BJP candidate for the assembly by poll from Bankipur seat to assert his authority. The usual functional norm in the BJP has been to take Amit Shah into confidence before making any final decision. This was for the first time his authority was ignored by the BJP President.
Obviously Shah did not like this audacity. Shah never dreamt that Nabin elevated to the presidentship would nominate his own protégé violating the functional practice and norms. Shah expected of Nabin that he would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor J P Nadda who used to take order from Shah and never ventured to exercise his independent authority. Nabin is said to have a nice dressing down from Amit Shah for his misadventure and exercising his power.
Obviously Nabin’s candidate Abhishek Kumar Sinha (alias Bunty) had to pay for the audacity of hid god-brother. Bunty was replaced with Neeraj Kumar Sinha as BJP candidate. Two reasons were cited for his removal; first he had publicly withdrew his nomination citing “family reasons” and second, his parents were involved in Fodder Scam, in which Lalu Yadav was the accused and also jailed. Alacrity shown by the central BJP leadership was quite amazing. The replacement was announced within less than 30 hours after the initial nomination.
However before his removal, the message had reached Patna office of BJP that Amit Shah does not like the manner in which Abhishek’s candidature has been made by Nabin, taken it as an affront to his stature and likes to be replaced by some other candidate. Obviously the decision has to be carried out and it needed some nice excuse. The explanation that was put forward in public domain was quite tenable: party assessments reportedly viewed Abhishek as a weaker candidate. He would not be able to face challenges from formidable opponents, including RJD’s Rekha Gupta and former election strategist Prashant Kishor, who is making his electoral debut as a Jan Suraaj Party candidate. To keep the seat under its control the party must field a powerful and formidable candidate.
The Bankipur seat is considered to be a long-standing BJP stronghold, vacated by BJP National President Nitin Nabin. To prevent an embarrassing upset against Prashant Kishor, the party scrambled to field Neeraj Kumar Sinha, a former booth president and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) district vice-president with a longer organizational history. However the state party leaders are shocked at this decision of the central leadership. Nabin was denied the right to choose the replacement. The central leadership managed to get a withdrawal letter from Abhishek; “Because of family reasons, I am unable to contest the bypoll. But I will continue to work for the party as a committed worker. I have conveyed the same to state president Sanjay Saraogi”.
Sheer bad omen for the Bihar BJP. The new replacement candidate Neeraj is also deep in controversy. He was named the BJP candidate for the Bankipur Assembly by-election in Bihar. Following the announcement, the party circulated his biodata which listed his birth year as 1994 and his party joining year as 2006. This implies that he joined the BJP at the age of 12. The claim drew sharp criticism and questions from rival political parties regarding BJP membership rules, prompting the party to swiftly release an updated biodata that removed the 2006 membership date. Opposition parties have questioned the validity of his biodata and exact joining timeline. Neeraj was hastily brought in after the original candidate, Abhishek withdrew his nomination.
The Bankipur bypoll has gained significance for the BJP as the constituency dominated by the Kayasthas has remained a party stronghold for nearly 30 years. The election will be the first bypoll in Bihar after Samrat Choudhary took charge as Chief Minister. The seat was represented by Nitin Nabin for five consecutive terms before he vacated it after becoming BJP national president. Before him, his father Naveen Kishore Prasad Sinha had represented the constituency.
Neeraj Kumar Sinha will face a tough fight from Jan Suraaj Party founder and political strategist Prashant Kishor and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Rekha Kumari. Kishor, who has emerged as a new political force in Bihar, is seeking to expand the footprint of his Jan Suraaj movement through electoral politics. Popular as PK, he said “I know that even if I win, the NDA, which enjoys a brute majority, will not lose power. But the people had voted for (JDU president) Nitish Kumar. They can make the BJP top brass understand their displeasure by defeating it in Bankipur. I promise that just one MLA of the Jan Suraaj Party will outweigh the remaining 242 ones”.
The squalid game happening at the back of loot of multi crore cash and jewellery at Ram Temple in Ayodhya has disillusioned the traditional Kayastha voters of BJP. The Bankipur seat has highest number of learned, academics and educated people. This is the strongest citadel for the BJP. Disillusioned at the recent happenings it is expected that this time they may settle for Prashant Kishor.
The averseness of the RJD to grab the seat is manifest in its fielding the same candidate which had lost assembly election and its top leadership on foreign sojourn, ignoring the electoral compulsion. PK tactfully has been projecting the election as a referendum against the NDA government headed by a turncoat Samrat Choudhary. His claim that he is not pitted against any candidate, instead he is fighting against government appears to have been received well by the enlightened voters of Bankipur. (IPA Service)
