Nitish Kumar with Tejashwi Yadav at an Iftar party in Patna, Friday, April. 15, 2022.
A new political equation seems to be taking shape in Bihar. Amid the backdrop of CBI raids at locations linked to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi in a fresh corruption case, a new poster has appeared in Patna. The poster in the question was spotted in front of the RJD office, situated right across the street from the JD(U) premises.
The poster accuses the Modi government of misusing probe agencies and carries a sketch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi carrying a caged parrot captioned CBI, while an eagle, given the name ED (Enforcement Directorate), lurks nearby.
The poster also carries a small photograph of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi, the leader of the opposition, seated next to each other, with a slogan underneath highlighting the common ground the two have hit on caste census.
Change in Nitish's mood
The poster is an indication of a change in the mood of Nitish Kumar toward the Yadav family. When Nitish Kumar was asked by reporters on Sunday about the allegation by the RJD that the raids were 'politically motivated', he sought to dodge the query.
"I have no information, nothing to say. Only those involved in the matter can comment," Kumar, who heads BJP-JD(U) alliance government, told reporters in Patna.
Such a statement by Kumar is significant as it reflects that JD(U) would not want to create more problems for the RJD and Lalu. Nitish was earlier quite vocal against Lalu and his family, especially during the 2020 assembly elections, when he took a dig at them (Lalu-Rabri) saying people have not forgotten the 'Jungle Raj'.
The RJD had last week accused the CBI of acting upon 'instructions from political bosses in the BJP' which rules the Centre. Many RJD leaders have been alleging that the latest CBI case and the subsequent raids were intended to warn Nitish, who recently went to attend an Iftar party held at Rabri Devi’s house and walked her son Tejashwi Yadav to his car when he visited JD(U) office to attend a similar feast.
Kumar has been an NDA ally since the mid-1990s. He unseated Rabri Devi from power in 2005 but broke up with the BJP over ideological differences eight years later. Ahead of the 2015 assembly polls, he buried the hatchet with Prasad and the arch rivals' coalition met with huge success at the hustings. Nitish, however, returned to the BJP camp in 2017 following a series of corruption charges against Tejashwi who served as his deputy.
If reports are to go by, there are talks in the political arena in Bihar that the BJP is wary that Nitish may again ditch the NDA again in the backdrop of growing bonhomie between the CM and his former deputy. Besides coming together at the Iftar party on two occasions -- one hosted by RJD and the second by JD(U), the two leaders are also on the same page over the caste-based census.
READ MORE: Nitish Kumar's all-party meet on caste census this week: Why it's a snub for 'big brother' BJP
