Is LJP working as B team of BJP in Bihar?

New Delhi, Oct 5 : The narrative over the last one week has been of an ally unhappy with the seat sharing pact offered to it when the LJP and BJP leaders including Amit Shah met to ‘sort things out’.
However, when the LJP’s Chirag Paswan decided on a solo show in the Bihar Assembly elections, promising a contest against the JD-U candidates while stressing no differences with the BJP, the logical question to ask is whether the LJP is being used to keep Nitish Kumar in check? Also, whether the ‘ideological difference’ cited by the LJP resolution is part of a larger scheme of things? Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, once the ‘Susashan Babu’ of Bihar known for constructing roads in a state sliding into lawlessness after Lalu Prasad Yadav’s reign, has now come to be known for numerous potholes and mishandling of the migrant crisis in Bihar in 2020.
The strong wind of anti-incumbency in Bihar against the JD-U was brought out as recently as late September in an IANS-C Voter opinion poll. According to the survey, about 56.7 percent voters are ‘unhappy’ with the government and they want change, while 29.8 percent are ‘angry’ with the government but do not want to change it.
An anti-Nitish front by the LJP led by a 37-year-old talking about jobs and ‘Bihari first’ is likely to resonate among the young and restless. Another core vote bank for Nitish apart from the Kurmis, have been the women. With the Muzaffarpur shelter home case of sexual assault on girls very much fresh in the state’s psyche, much of that vote bank is likely to desert the JD-U this time.
In such a scenario, ‘Modi se koi bair nahi, Nitish ki khair nahi’ seems to be the overwhelming essence of the LJP’s political posturing of anti JD-U, pro-BJP politics. The LJP Parliamentary Board-passed resolution also took a direct confrontational mode with Nitish Kumar when it read, “In many seats, there may be ideological fights with the JD-U where the public can decide which representative will keep Bihar’s good in mind.” However, the LJP shied away from fronting any candidates against the BJP.