Bihar: Rape capital of India?

Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

A series of rape incidents have rocked Bihar of late In the past two days, at least six cases of gang-rape have been reported from various parts of the state, scaring citizens. Significantly, the ruling Nitish Kumar government had returned to power after 2010 assembly elections on the plank of maintaining law and order in Bihar but the present situation appears quite more alarming as is evident from the total failures by the state administration to tackle crime against women.

In a fresh incident, a college girl was picked up by three car-borne youths in Gaya and gang-raped in the ruling vehicle before being thrown out along the national highway in far-off Kaimur district. The sensational incident took place in broad daylight on Wednesday while the 19-year-old BA part-I student of Gaya-based Gautam Buddha Mahila College was way to a coaching centre. On hearing her cries, the local villagers rushed to the spot and admitted the victim to a local government hospital from where she was handed over to her parents. She told the police that three youths dragged her into a SUV and gang-raped her into the running vehicle before being throwing her out in an unconscious state. The police have arrested two youths in this connection.

Similar incident was reported from the state capital where a Nepali girl was thrown out on the busy Bailey Road, considered the lifeline of Patna, yesterday after being gang-raped for a year. Her cries invited the attention of the passersby who admitted her to the nearby Rajvanshi Nagar’s government hospital. She told the police that she had fled her home in Nepal last year after being chided by her parents but shortly after she reached Patna, she fell into the sex racket. During her stay in Patna, she was supplied at 29 different locations of sex racketeers. Police said she had refused returning her home at Janakpur in Nepal. Meanwhile, the victim has been handed over to a women helpline.

In another incident reported from eastern Bihar’s Lakhisarai district, a class VIII girl student of a government middle school was lured by her school teacher and then raped several times until she became pregnant. The entire matter came to light when the victim’s parents admitted her to a local hospital yesterday when her labour pain started. Hurriedly, her parents brought her to a local hospital but she fainted while riding the stairs and suffered miscarriage. “The condition of the girl is very serious since she has become pregnant in a tender age…she is anaemic and urgently requires blood”, a local doctor Dr Rupa who attended the victim told reporters today.

On Tuesday, the Guwahati molestation incident was virtually repeated on the streets of Patna when a 24-year-old teacher with a private school was allegedly molested by a group of drunken youths. The girl screamed for help but none came to her rescue out of fear of ruffians as she saved herself by taking shelter inside a roadside house. The girl dressed in jean-pant was returning home on foot after the duty hours when some three youths mobbed her and began allegedly molesting her as the onlookers stayed away from help. One of the passersby who tried to rescue her was brutally assaulted by the youths. In the meantime police have registered a case against some persons in this connection. Yesterday, the main accused in the case surrendered in the court under mounting police pressures, after which he sent to jail but the increasing cases of sexual assaults on the female class have terrorised the common men.

These incidents come close on the heels of gang-rape of a teen-aged girl in Patna by some seven youths who also filmed the entire act on their mobile phone camera before getting them uploaded on the internet and circulating them in the market after making their CDs. The incident occurred in a flat in Rambha Apartment located in the high-security zone of the state capital where are situated the official bungalows of the chief minister, governor and senior government official. Reports said using these footages, the accused forced the girl submit again and again for a month until the CDs hit the markets and entire story broke. The local media has reported that the incident occurred in June itself but the police continued sitting over the case allegedly under pressures from the some big sharks whose wards were involved in the act. It is alleged son a ruling party lawmaker is involved in the act but the said lawmaker has denied it.

The police swung into action in July end only after a local news channel ran the story and telecast a portion of the story after which women rights groups hit the streets of the state capital and took out late night “candle march”, seeking action against the accused. Subsequently, the State Women Commission rushed to the victim and recorded the statement of the victim after which the case was formally lodged. 

The police, though were geared into action and arrested some of the accused only when the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Patna while taking suo moto cognizance of the case issued arrest warrant against the accused. However, the mystery boy Saurabh still remains out of the reach of the police. The entire issue figured prominently in the current monsoon session of the state assembly as the Opposition members vociferously raised the issue and continuously disrupted House proceedings, seeking for a CBI probe into the incident and punishing the culprits. The government has assured culprits will not be spared.

Caste no bar for next CM: Lalu

http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=419252&catid=36

Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

In a sudden climb-down, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad has announced that the next chief minister could be from any caste if his party comes back to power in the Assembly elections due in 2015 ~ a gamble observers feel may pay off for the party, which is now battling for survival.  

The move is aimed at bridging the gap with other castes and seeking their support in forming the next government. So far, both the RJD chief ministers ~ Prasad himself and his wife, Rabri Devi ~ have been from his family, which has not conveyed a good message to the voters.  

Prasad made the statement while kicking off the third leg of his Parivartan Yatra from Nawada yesterday. The RJD’s yatra, considered a reply to a series of yatras recently undertaken by chief minister Nitish Kumar, is aimed at unseating the present NDA regime, which Prasad has accused of being “anti-poor” and “neck-deep in corruption”.  

Prasad’s declaration assumes significance given the fact that he very recently had begun grooming his cricketer son Tejaswi Yadav for the coveted post, while closely following in the success story of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Prasad, had planned to assign his son the task of strengthening the organisational base of the party’s young wing, before giving him the bigger responsibility in the event of the RJD putting up a good performance in the next polls, according to RJD sources.   

He seems to have changed course, though, after receiving some not-so-good feedback about his proposed plan.   

So far, Prasad’s family had staked a strong claim on the post of chief minister which was one of the reasons for it losing power on its home turf despite having strong support among the poor, backwards, Dalits and Muslims, observers say.   

In the 2010 Assembly elections, the RJD stood a good chance of making a significant improvement in its seat tally, but the party’s sudden move to project Prasad as the chief ministerial candidate and Pashupati Nath Paras, Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan’s younger brother, as his deputy, spoiled the entire show as the NDA went to the voters highlighting the RJD chief’s poor track record as Bihar chief minister.  

This, according to observers, sealed the fate of the RJD, which was restricted to a mere 23 seats in 243-member Bihar Assembly.

The RJD chief’s rallies are now drawing impressive crowds, however, which indicate the rising level of frustration with the present regime. Even ruling party lawmakers admit that corruption in development schemes has hugely disappointed the common men and earned a bad name for the Nitish Kumar government.  

This has been corroborated by a recent survey conducted by a BJP member of Parliament from Purnia,  Uday Singh, in his Lok Sabha constituency.  

According to the 55-page survey, 50 per cent of the people feel the condition of the health centres is bad, 60 per cent of children aged three to six have been out of Anganwadi centres, 96 per cent of people are totally against the state government’s policy of opening wine shops at the panchayat level, and only 12 per cent of the below-poverty-line (BPL) families have been given job cards.

"The survey is not aimed at highlighting the failures of the state government, but at bringing out the truth, so that the problems can be rectified,” said Singh.  

He said the government’s intentions are good but the loopholes in the system are defeating the purposes of the welfare schemes.  

“It’s a pity that problems of the people refuse to come down despite a good government being in power,” he said. “Hooliganism is once again raising its head, red-tapism has increased, people’s representatives are being mistreated and political activists are being ignored."  

At the same time, he said, the academic system has collapsed in the state and the farmers’ condition has worsened.

Bihar college accepts cows as admission fees!

http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=417196&catid=36

Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

A local engineering institute in Bihar has offered to accept cows as admission-cum-tuition fees from talented students who can't afford to pay in cash.  

The offer comes from Vidyadaan Institute of Technology and Management, a prominent engineering college affiliated to Aryabhatta Knowledge University, a state-run university recognised by the University Grants Commission. The engineering college is located in western Bihar’s Buxur district. 

Under the scheme, students from farming families may not have to cough up hefty admissions fees anymore. Rather, they can pursue the four-year Bachelor in Technology course just by depositing cows ~ which must be giving milk ~ and calves in instalments.  

Each student will have to deposit two milk cows and two calves in the first year, another two of each in the second year, and one cow and a calf in the third year. The institute has reserved 20 seats for such students from farming backgrounds. Quite a few students have been enrolled in the engineering institute under this scheme.  

"Farmers basically lack cash, but have cows at home," explained Mr Surya Kumar Singh, a former defence scientist and chairman of the Vidyadaan Society, which runs the engineering institute. 

"The milk produced from these cows can bring in enough cash to help the institute meet the cost of the student’s studies," Mr Singh said, adding that producing milk and supplying it in the market would be the sole responsibility of the institute authorities and the students will have no role in it other than depositing the bovines.   

On average, one cow gives 2,400 litres of milk in a year ~ at least 10 litres of milk twice a day for eight months, Mr Singh said. Doubling this for a pair of cows, 4,800 litres of milk per year could fetch Rs 96,000 at a price of Rs 20 per litre ~ well below the market rate of Rs 30 per litre.  

"So even if Rs 36,000 is spent on the upkeep of the bovine, we will have Rs 60,000 remaining which can be adjusted against the total four-year engineering course fee of Rs 3 lakh,” said Mr Singh, adding that the bovines will not be returned. 

Bihar politicians gird up loins to prove they are "young"

http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=416107&catid=36

Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

Politics, as we know, is normally about defeating the rivals in the electoral arena but Bihar politicians are now challenging their rivals in the wrestling arena. They say only a complete wrestling can prove who one is really youthful, agile and energetic, and thus, fit to rule the state.  

It all began after someone from chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD-U called RJD chief Lalu Prasad as an “old” man too weak to run the state, reacting to Prasad's appeal to the masses to throw out the ruling Nitish Kumar government in course of his ongoing “Parivartan Yatra” that he is undertaking across the state to expose failures of the ruling regime. 

“People in the JD-U are rejecting me as an old man unable to rule Bihar. What are the parameters of deciding about one’s age? I challenge them to gird up loin and join me at the wresting arena to be built in Gandhi Maidan. That will decide who one is young and old”, Prasad challenged his rivals at a public function in Patna on Saturday.

Apparently stung by the open challenge to prove their agility in public, at least three Cabinet ministers ~ food and civil Supplies minister Shyam Rajak, rural works minister Bhim Singh and revenue and land reforms minister Ramai Ram have offered to join fight with the RJD chief. 

Incidentally, trio who are now ministers in the NDA government were once close lieutenants of Prasad and two of them even served as ministers in the 15-year-long RJD government. Their switched loyalty overnight shortly after NDA came to power.

“The RJD Lalu Prasad is an old man now but now that he has given open challenge us, I accept it humbly. Only, he should inform me about the date when the wrestling will take place”, remarked food and civil supplies minister Rajak at a press conference. The RJD chief soon reacted by saying Rajak should at first face his junior colleague Ramkripal Yadav, RJD spokesman, before joining me in the wrestling arena.  

Another minister, Singh said it was not morally fair to take him on in the wrestling since he was his “political guru” yet he would ill fight like a mythological Bhim in the Mahabharata. “At first, I will touch the feet of my guru before joining the fight”, said Singh. Another minister, Ram said the RJD chief could not face him in the battle.

The fight for grabbing political space in Bihar has turned bitter in Bihar in recent months as the political rivals have got indulged in hitting below the belt, making baseless allegations against one another. 

While the ruling regime has gone on making caricature of the RJD chief Prasad in the media, the latter has accused the chief minister of masterminding the killing of Barmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiyaji, the self-styled chief of Ranvir Sena~ a private militia of upper caste landlords. “Barmeshwar Mukhiya has been killed at the behest of Nitish Kumar”, the RJD chief alleged during his Parivartan Yatra in Darbhanga yesterday. The chief minister is still to react over the matter.

When Lotus hits arrow

The police from a BJP-ruled state of Karnataka come to a NDA-ruled state of Bihar (where BJP is junior coalition partner in the government headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar) to arrest a suspected terrorist and then produce the arrested youth before a judicial magistrate in a third state—the BJP-ruled Jharkhand. Was this a sheer coincidence or does this tell the grown-up distrust between BJP and JD-U? Manoj Chaurasia tries to find out the answer…

THEY had joined hands together to throw out the “corrupt and inefficient” government of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, the first couple to rule Bihar for 15 years by turns, although their ideologies poled apart— one professing socialist ideals while the other taking to the route of hard-line Hindutva as its political agenda centred around construction of a magnificent Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The strange political “handshake” of the time between the rightist BJP and the “socialist” Samata Party of Nitish Kumar, which later merged with the JD-U, had taken place during the 1996 general elections when the NDA government headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee first came to power at the centre – well after the demolition of Barbri mosque on 6 December 1992, highlighting their political urgency to capture throne of Patliputra. Now that the goal is achieved, the NDA partners, as is being said, are frequently looking for ways to separate as cracks in their relations are now only too visible, almost beyond repairs. Rather, it can be said their infighting has assumed alarming proportion so much so that they are now viewing each other with suspicion. The recent arrest of an alleged terrorist Mohammad Kafil Ahmad suspected to have been involved 2010 Chinanswami stadium blast in Bangalore by the Karnataka police from Bihar is a pointer to the fact.

See the sequence of events: The police from a BJP-ruled state of Karnataka come to a NDA-ruled state of Bihar (where BJP is junior coalition partner in the government headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar) to arrest a suspected terrorist and then produce the arrested youth before a judicial magistrate in a third state—the BJP-ruled Jharkhand. The arrest is made from Barh-Samalia village in north Bihar’s Darbhanga district past weekend without informing the local authorities, shortly after the Bihar chief minister had raised the issue of recurring violation of state boundaries by some states during the recently held meeting in New Delhi over National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC).

The moot question now here is that why the Karnataka police chose to travel about 425 km on the hot and humid weather to reach Ranchi to produce the arrested “terrorist” in a court there, instead of covering just 130 km to reach Patna and complete the basic legal formalities? Moreover, there is also a direct flight between Patna and Bangalore. Further, why did the Karnataka police produce the arrested youth in a Jharkhand court although the place of arrest falls under the jurisdiction of Bihar? The answer is not far away to seek. A letter by the Karnataka chief minister Sadanand Gowda to his Bihar counterpart after the latter strongly objected to the manner in which the arrest was made seems lifting the veil over the suspense griping the arrest drama. In his letter Gowda cites “paucity of time” and “fear of the accused to escape police arrest” behind his police’s logic to produce the arrested “terrorist” in a Ranchi court.

However, the very logic fails to cut any ice with the Bihar chief minister as is evident from his letter addressed to his Karnataka counterpart, “You will acknowledge that there should be no apprehension in mind of any visiting officer of any state about the professional integrity of such senior police officers available at Darbhanga (the place of arrest). Hence, the visiting team of officers (from Karnataka) since 5 May 2012 had ample time and opportunity to organise their operation by taking our officers into confidence”. The exchange of their letters brings out some important points – one chief minister citing “paucity of time” and “fear of accused to escape” while other asserting that “professional integrity” of his officers should not be doubted.

Was all these a mere coincidence or is it the outcome of the growing distrust between the BJP and the JD-U over the years? Whatever may be the reason but it is a reality that warmth between two NDA partners is totally missing now and the present development could be the outcome of the growing distrust between them. The situation has come to such a passé that what once appeared to a fight between the two alliance partners has now turned into a full-blown fight between the JD-U and BJP-ruled states.

Although several times during the past three years, the police from other states, such as Maharashtra and Delhi, raided Bihar to arrest nearly a dozen youths suspected to have involved in many terrorist activities like Mumbai terrorist attacks and Delhi High Court blasts, the Bihar chief minister had only muted protests. He reacted angrily only after noticing the Karnataka police’s daredevilry. The anger of the Bihar chief minister is underlined from the fact that not only did he shot off a letter to his Karnataka counterpart but also his police lodged a formal protest with the Karnataka DGP. The Bihar CM is also expected to take up the matter with the Union Home Ministry. The JD-U leadership in Bihar has further vented its anger towards its alliance partner over the way a senior BJP leader and health minister in the Nitish Kumar government Ashwini Kumar Choube supported the candidature of Modi at a function held in Gujarat early this month to mark 100 years of the creation of Bihar. “Mr Modi should aim for PM’s post and Bihar will support his candidature”, remarked Choube at the function in the presence of Gujarat CM, prompting the JD-U to seek clarification from the BJP as to if it was the official view of the alliance partner. The BJP replied in the negative saying it was “personal” view of the minister.

The tug-of-war between the NDA partners has intensified especially in the aftermath of the BJP chief Nitin Gadkari backed by the RSS unsuccessfully trying to project Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the NDA Prime Ministerial candidate while the Bihar chief minister now nurses this big ambition. It was due to this ambition that Mr Kumar decided to flag off the “Jan Chetana Yatra” of LK Advani launched from JP birth place in October last year. Initially Advani was to launch his yatra from Gujarat but he finally shifted to Bihar since Modi refused to lend his support, perceiving it as threats to his candidature. Mr Kumar was only too quick to flag off Advani’s yatra since he too finds Modi a bigger threat to his prime ministerial ambition. With his eyes firmly set on set on “Mission Delhi”, Kumar has gone on extensively wooing the minorities by launching a series of programmes aimed at winning the faith the Muslim community who accounts for 16 percent of the total vote share quite instrumental in deciding the fate of any government.  JD-U insiders say Mr Kumar’s mission this time is to win all the 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar in the next 2014 general election. Apparently apprehending that the JD-U may dump them at any time in its bid to claim the throne for New Delhi, the BJP has resorted to hardline Hindutva to woo the hardcore Hindu voters. A sudden spurt in RSS activities in the state tells much. 

Mr Kumar’s repulsion towards Modi is only too well-known. Since the time he came to power after November 2005 assembly elections in Bihar, the Bihar chief minister has not allowed Mr Modi to campaign for the NDA candidates, neither during the April-May 2009 Lok Sabha polls nor during the October-November 2010 assembly polls in Bihar. Earlier, during the May 2010 BJP national executive body meeting held in Patna, the chief minister had cancelled dinner hosted in honour of the vising guests and even returned Rs 5 crore cheque to Gujarat government donated for the 2008 Kosi disaster merely after the BJP carried an advertisement in local dailies showing the Bihar chief minister clasping hands with Modi.

As of now the battle between the two partners has become just order of the day as both the partners have begun encroaching into each other’s vote bank. While the BJP has begun wooing Mahadalits (extremely backward caste) which the JD-U claims its vote-bank, the latter has started holding minority class rallies in the constituencies held by the saffron party. This has led to tension between the two partners. This was visible during the recent UP assembly elections where the BJP refused to accept the JD-U’s seat-sharing deal as the two partners fought against each other. The JD-U reacted soon by not sparing the third seat for its partners during the recent Rajya Sabha elections to six seats in Bihar. Eventually, the JD-U walked away with four RS seats against only two spared for the BJP.

The JD-U has begun cold-shouldering the BJP over one issue after another shortly after it has reached near the majority mark. Right now, the total strength of the JD-U in the Bihar Legislative Assembly is 118, which is only four short of the majority mark. Yet forming government on its own is not the problem of the JD-U given the fact it has also the support of six independents. Perhaps Mr Kumar has this in mind that the Muslims votes may go en-bloc to the JD-U if goes it alone at the polls, severing ties with the BJP. Apparently this has forced the BJP to keep a barb on its partner in various ways.

Strangely, Nitish Kumar as the chief minister has been the creation of BJP, and not the JD-U which now has gone on dominating over its saffron friend. The NDA had got only 92 seats (JD-U- 55 and BJP-37) in the 243-member Bihar assembly when it went to the polls without declaring its chief ministerial candidate during the February-March 2005 assembly election. NDA’s prospects were married further when the then JDU’s national president George Fernandes, while replying to a query by the newsmen, denied Mr Kumar would be the chief minister in the event of NDA gaining majority stating that the matter will be decided after polls. (It was apparently after this that serious differences grew between Mr Kumar and Fernandes who later was not only robbed off party presidentship but also had to shift to his old constituency of Muzaffarpur during the 2009 LS polls which he lost badly). However, since the assembly results threw up hung House, it was finally dissolved within seven months of polling had taken place. In the next assembly elections held in October-November the same, the NDA though widely projected Mr Kumar as the Chief Ministerial candidate and it was finally able to form government in the state with coalition together bagging 143 seats (JD-U-88 and BJP-55). In the last 2010 assembly polls, the NDA just created a history when it made a clean sweep in the state winning 206 seats (JD-U 115 and BJP-91) in the 243-mmeber state assembly.

But, the chief minister despite all poll calculations in his mind and anguish towards his partners appears to be in double mind on the issue of throwing out the BJP from its boat. The JD-U knows that BJP is a cadre-based national party which is support base among the upper castes and business while its presence is limited to only few states with its following in a section of backward class and too some extent in minorities. There is also a view within the JD-U that upper caste voters may turn against it in the event of breaking relations with the BJP which came to its rescue during bad phases of its life. Apparently this fear is preventing the chief minister from severing ties with its saffron party but politics is the game of unpredictable and nothing can be said for sure in politics.

Nitish keeps BJP out from rally for Bihar's "rights"

 http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=415597&catid=36

Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

After seven consecutive years in power, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has begun to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and arch-rival, RJD chief Lalu Prasad.  

During his RJD government's 15 years in power, Prasad was infamous for holding rallies. Kumar now looks to be primarily focussing on just two things: undertaking yatras across the state and holding rallies. Kumar's efforts are aimed at attracting the attention of the masses at regular intervals until the dates of the Lok Sabha elections are announced. 

In line with his long-term game-plan, the chief minister has now deputed all 17 JD-U ministers in the NDA government to supervise preparations for the much-publicised Aadhikar Rally to be held at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on 6 November to press for Special Category status for Bihar. The chief minister passed this order while presiding over a meeting of top JD-U functionaries at his official residence here today. 

The ministers have been directed to supervise rally preparations at the district level, with some ministers even tasked to look after preparations in more than one district. Bihar has 38 districts. The chief minister has even drawn up a mass mobilisation campaign for the next four months and instructed ministers to go all-out to make the rally a major success.   

Significantly, all 12 BJP ministers have been kept out of the rally though the issue concerns the entire state, and the BJP has been campaigning for this demand side-by-side its alliance partner.

Even the deputy chief minister, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who is considered close to the chief minister, has not been given any role in the rally ~ another indication of a widening gap between the ruling partners in the NDA government.   

Although the purpose of the rally, on the surface, is to press for granting Special Category status to Bihar ~ a demand which has already been shot down by the Centre ~ the inside story is that the JD-U is trying hard to galvanise its voters through such public programmes and keep them in "poll mode" ahead of the next general election, which is still two years away.  

In addition to the rally, the chief minister has been constantly undertaking yatras across the state to win over the hearts of the masses and address any grievances they might have, then and there. In the past three years, Kumar has undertaken as many as five such yatras. 

Curiously, the chief minister has suddenly begun chalking out party programmes quite intensively in the aftermath of the prevailing sourness between the two partners over the issue of a “secular” PM candidate.

What is even more peculiar is that the JD-U has been constantly “targeting” the BJP with clinical perfection without showing any kind of animosity in public, constantly using "goody-goody" for its alliance partner.

“We have a 16-year-old alliance and our bond is very strong,” is what the JD-U leaders keep on telling the media, even as it continues its “poaching” drive.  

Yesterday, the JD-U lured senior BJP leader Sanjay Jha into the party and reports are that many more BJP members will be inducted into the JD-U very soon. The BJP, on the other hand, is said to be planning to lure away rebel JD-U leaders, including Upendra Kushwaha and Chhedi Paswan.  

BJP "caught" in Nitish's master game-plan

http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=415487&catid=36

Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

Amid the prevailing tension between the ruling partners over the issue of a “secular” PM candidate, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD-U today inducted a senior BJP leader, Sanjay Jha, into the party, inviting a strong reaction from the BJP which termed it utter violation of “coalition dharma”.

This is the first time that its own partner has become a victim of JD-U poaching. The BJP turncoat, according to reports, has been promised a Lok Sabha ticket from Darbhanga seat, currently held by Kirti Azad in Parliament.

According to informed sources, the JD-U may use Jha to lure more BJP leaders into the party, as part of an apparent plan to weaken the saffron forces in Bihar and eventually reduce it to a spent force before the dates of the next general elections are announced.

An influential Brahmin leader, Jha, who was considered close to Arun Jaitley was inducted into the party by the state JD-U chief Vashishtha Narayan Singh at the residence of the chief minister in full media glare. A host of senior JD-U leaders and ministers were present to welcome Jha into the party.

Both the parties are coalition partners in the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in power in Bihar since November 2005. “This should not be made an issue…After all, I have joined the coalition partner, and not some other party”, Jha told newsmen soon after the function. The development would not have any adverse impact on the BJP-JD-U coalition, he said.

Asked what the logic was behind leaving one ruling coalition partner for another, Jha explained that for quite some time, he had closely worked with the JD-U and its ideology had impressed him. He claimed he had joined the party with the consent of everyone.

For several months now, the JD-U had been eyeing Jha and his ditching the BJP had become a strong likelihood when in April the party refused to re-nominate him to the Bihar legislative council.

The haste with which Kumar has lured Mr Jha into his party has surprised the BJP, especially when the JD-U had declared a “truce” shortly after a bitter war of words erupted between the two partners over the issue of the NDA putting up a "secular” person as its PM candidate for the next general election. 

The move has evoked sharp criticism from the BJP which described it as the worst kind of poaching. “Such things were not expected from a partner which had been in coalition for the past 16 years… this is purely unethical and utter violation of coalition dharma”, said the state BJP secretary, Mrintunjay Jha.

However, the JD-U rejected the BJP charges. “This is not dhokhaghadi (distrust); rather Mr Jha has joined the party voluntarily”, said agriculture minister Narendra Singh. But, the food and civil supplies minister Shyam Rajak appeared to throw broad hints about what was going to happen in future when he announced “a good many” BJP leaders were in touch with the JD-U leadership. 

Asked to name them, he just said, “Aage aage dekhiye hota hai kya (Just wait what happens next)...”

The relation between the two partners has become strained in the aftermath of the Bihar chief minister demanding that the NDA's prime ministerial candidate should have “secular” credentials. Kumar’s JD-U is also supporting the candidature of UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee while BJP’s is supporting PA Sangma.