Bihar diary January

Political equations are changing fast in Bihar as the Lok sabha election approaches.

The once bitter enemy , LJP party president Ram Vilas Paswan and the RJD President Lalu Prasad yadav have now come closer. Paswan has said Laluji has run his full course in Bihar and now it his time to lead the UPA to power in Bihar. Paswan described Lalu as his good friend and Yadav called the LJP leader a senior leader of India.

Yavav reciprocated by saying he would support Paswan as the next dalit prime minister and welcomed Paswan's decision to lead the UPA in Bihar. He also said he has no problem in Paswan's demand for 20 out of 40 lok sabha seats in Bihar.

Though both the leaders are a part of the UPA yet the relationship between them has never been too friendly. But with Nitish Kumar emerging stronger and popular with every passing day, the two leaders who call themselves as the messiah of the backward class find themselves sharing common platform and both of them have now accepted the fact that in order to stop a repeat of the previous state assembly election , they will have to compromise their personal agendas.

The biggest gainer in this political game will be Paswan who has nothing to lose when compared to Lalu.

If Lalu is routed in the coming elections, his entire political career would be at stake.Ranjan Prasad Yadav,now vice-president of the LJP and a close associate of Lalu for the last several years commented “Lalu knows, his future is sealed, hence he has come to the shelter of Ramvilas Paswan.”

He alleged that in the 2005 election campaign Lalu yadav used to tell people “ Burn the hurt”(Election symbol of paswan) and “Arrange funeral of Paswan”

Graph of Nitish Kumar has considerably improved in the last four years. He is working on development plank only and this won him the Politician of the Year award sponsored by a premier English daily and a News Channel. Nitish is camping in the villages to oversee the development works. He has also launched a campaign against corruption in the government offices and announced reward upto Rs five lakhs for the informers about corrupt officers.

Political observers of Bihar admit,Nitish Kumar will have a definite advantage in the Lok Sabha elections over his rivals-Lalu and Paswan.Lalu has become weaker with the Congress general secretary,Rahul Gandhi ,supporting the demands of the Bihar Congress leaders demanding more seats to the party nominees.

In the past, even the Congress candidates were decided by Lalu. Recently Lalu himself admitted “What Can I do if the Congress decides to contest all the seats.”

The Lok Sabha elections have upset the calculations among the BJP leaders.The film star turned politician, Shatrughan Sinha has announced his candidature from Patailputra constitutency.

The party spokesman,Ravishankar Prasad and vice -president of the state unit,R K Sinha,too have also announced their plan to contest from the same seat.

Visible Inner discontents are harbingers of an election mela. Surely the mela is all set to arrive in Bihar