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JD(U) out of BJP’s shadow
MANINI CHATTERJEE
Posted online: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs

NEW DELHI, APRIL 11: The results of the bitterly fought JD (U) presidential elections in Patna today spells not just a humiliating defeat for incumbent George Fernandes but is also a big setback for the BJP-led NDA and could have a bearing on the political churning at the national level in the coming months.

Sharad Yadav’s decisive victory was certain to strengthen the ‘‘independent and autonomous’’ role of the JD(U) within the NDA, top party sources said.

Ever since the defeat of the NDA two years ago, a strong section within the JD(U) has been unhappy with the alliance with the BJP, especially after the BJP decided to return to the Hindutva line. At JD(U) national executive meetings, this section has repeatedly stressed the party’s ‘‘socialist and secular’’ roots and expressed misgivings about getting too close to the BJP.

However, George Fernandes in his dual role as JD(U) chief and NDA convenor remained very close to the BJP leadership and was seen as acting at their behest. Often, he was the only non-BJP representative at so-called NDA meetings or ‘‘NDA delegations’’ to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Fernandes’s deep antipathy towards the Congress and particularly Sonia Gandhi made him join hands with the BJP on every occasion without always getting the endorsement of his own party, JD(U) leaders privately complain.

Sharad, on the other hand, has gone out of his way to establish the JD(U)’s ‘‘independent’’ approach to issues. For instance, he played a key role in securing support from non-BJP constituents of the NDA for the Bill to extend quotas to private unaided educational institutions and refused to go along with the BJP’s line of opposing the Bill on the pretext that minority educational institutions were exempt.

Sharad Yadav, who sees himself as an ideologue of the Lohiaite school, emerged as an important player when Nitish Kumar chose him rather than Fernandes to spearhead the party’s campaign in the Bihar Assembly polls last November. The Nitish-George duo was replaced by the Nitish-Sharad combine in the election.

With the primary goal of defeating Lalu Prasad Yadav, both Nitish and Sharad stuck to the alliance with the BJP. But they made it clear that the BJP’s ‘Hindutva politics should find no place in the campaign. After the JD(U)-BJP victory, Sharad scuttled moves by the BJP to fly down Narendra Modi for the grand swearing-in ceremony in Patna.

Since the Bihar victory, Sharad Yadav has slowly become more assertive in Delhi while Nitish Kumar has remained busy with transforming Bihar. Yadav and his close associates have made no secret about their differences with the BJP on ideological issues and their exasperation with Fernandes for blurring the party’s identity.

‘‘You can rest assured that as JD(U) chief Sharadji will not be working out of the BJP headquarters or address press conferences at Advani’s residence or make trips to Nagpur to broker peace between the BJP and RSS,’’ a JD(U) leader sarcastically said.

While there is no immediate plans to leave the NDA, Sharad Yadav’s elevation will also give a fillip to ongoing efforts to ‘‘re-unite the Janata parivar’’, sources said. To begin with, the Janata Dal (U) and Janata Dal (S) might get closer.

Yadav’s victory is also likely to impact on the ‘‘realignment of forces’’ taking place within the UPA and the emergence of a nascent Third Front. ‘‘It is too early to predict the future, but if the JD(U), JD(S), JMM and LJP join hands, we can form a viable alternative in Bihar, Jharkhand and Karnataka to both the Congress and BJP,’’ a party insider said.