Will This Friendship Remain Intact Post-Election?

DN POLITICAL BUREAU
New Delhi. A marriage of convenience or survival strategy in case of existential crisis…. Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad are sailing in the same boat. Now the big question is..how long and in what circumstances this friendship will continue?

The question arises given their past record and the manner in which current alliance was formed. You must remember Lalu Prasad’s venomous remark after being agreed on naming Nitish Kumar as a chief ministerial face of the ‘secular alliance’ for Bihar polls. Lalu had said he was ready to drink ‘poison’ to crush the ‘cobra’ of communalism.  

Nitish Kumar was once known in Bihar as Lalu Prasad’s ‘Chanakya’. Both are the product of same ideology and worked together very closely till 1994. From there, Nitish Kumar parted ways and shared an acerbic relationship with Lalu till a year back. For a period of two decades, both could not see eye to eye on any issue. While Lalu remained close to Congress, Nitish joined the NDA and enjoyed fruits of power both at the Centre and Bihar. 

But, the existential crisis for these two tallest politicians of Bihar forced them to come together. Given the confident and focused opponent in the form of NDA, contesting assembly election alone would surely have obliterated both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar from the political landscape. If not forever, then for some time to come. 

The alliance happened, but both remained uneasy due to their own apprehensions. Lalu’s apprehension was that alliance or projecting Nitish Kumar as CM would annoy his Yadav community, who feel the JD(U) leadership neglected them during his stint in power. While, Nitish was worried that his vote bank would be annoyed as his political existence was for ‘Sushashan’ against Lalu’s ‘Jungle Raj’. 

However, this uneasy alliance has a common cause of fighting ‘cobra’ of communalism. But, will the same factor exist post-election to continue their partnership? Political pundits say, in case of victory of the Grand Alliance, the compulsion of power will force them to stick together, though, a new Pandora box of pressure tactics and blackmailing would open. But, in case of defeat, there remains no meaning of alliance and chances are there that a new blame game follows. However, some experts have an observation that Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar are surprisingly doing well at both chemistry and arithmetic, so future of their alliance is quite bright.  

However, things would be clear only after November 8…whether the friends-turned-foes-turned-friends will remain friends or part their ways in different directions?