'Agnipath' Protests: After Bashing Nitish Govt, BJP Tries to Salvage Alliance, Lauds CM's 'Pretty Good Job'

From bashing the state government for inaction when protests against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme broke out, the Bharatiya Janata Party has now shifted to damage-control mode as the party leadership expressed “satisfaction” with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s “pretty good job” in dealing with the stir.

The BJP, senior party leaders believe, is making efforts to keep the ruling alliance intact.

The cracks in the coalition are too wide to ignore but the saffron party is not letting its ally in Bihar go at this point. Many in the party believe that with President and Vice President elections due, the BJP is adopting a cautious approach in a bid to not offend any of its allies. This is also bearing in mind that allies have left the BJP in the past.

Despite attacks on BJP state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal and deputy CM Renu Devi’s houses and a war of words following this with Janata Dal (United) chief Rajiv Ranjan, aka Lalan Singh, the saffron party maintains that everything is going fine and that the alliance is solid and has no cracks.

Speaking to News18.com, Jaiswal said, “In Bihar, everything is under control. There was some laxity on the first day but now they are doing a pretty good job. We are satisfied with the state government, whatever they have done till now.”

But does it bode well for the alliance if the top leaders keep blaming each other on governance and administration?

Jaiswal was quick to reply. “We are separate parties and there are issues we will raise as a party if we see them as worth raising. We will flag them to the state government if something wrong happens,” he said. “There are no cracks in the alliance and we are fine with Nitish Kumar.”

Jaiswal now blames the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for the attack on his house and party headquarters. “It was done by RJD goons. Look at those who are arrested. MaLe ( (Marxist-Leninist)) too were involved in instigating coaching institute students,” he alleged.

Senior party leaders in the state, though, are asking whether CM Nitish Kumar is fine with the BJP or not.

“It seems the JD(U) tries everything to destabilise the alliance. We will follow alliance dharma and won’t break it,” said a senior BJP leader. Others too from the party say that the coalition will not be broken from their end.

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