Nitish Kumar gets thank you call from President-in-waiting Pranab Mukherjee

Patna: Nitish Kumar,  Chief Minister of Bihar,  received a vote of thanks from Pranab Mukherjee this morning, in advance of the votes Mr Kumar’s party has promised him in the election for President of India. That has got to hurt his partner, the BJP.  It retaliated, not subtly, by marching in the streets today with posters of Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister  with who Mr Kumar wants little to do with.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is the candidate of the Congress-led UPA. Mr Kumar and his party, the Janata Dal (United), belong to the opposing coalition, the NDA, which is led by the BJP.

Mr Kumar has decided not to back PA Sangma, the former speaker who is running against Mr Mukherjee, and has been endorsed by the BJP, which is Mr Kumar’s ally in Bihar. “We are not supporting the Congress,” said Sharad Yadav on Thursday, who heads Mr Kumar’s party. But like another important ally of the BJP, the Shiv Sena,  his party has decided against supporting Mr Sangma just for the sake of opposing the ruling coalition.

The BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was in Patna today  urged Mr Kumar to reconsider.  The chief minister’s party retorted sharply that perhaps he BJP should consider backing the Finance Minister instead of Mr Sangma.
The math is loaded heavily in favour of the Finance Minister. With its allies, and the support of two Left parties, as well as the Shiv Sena and Mr Kumar, Mr Mukherjee should get 63 % of the vote on July 19. (Read: Pranab or Sangma for President: The Math)

Mr Kumar’s opposition to Mr Sangma is triggered, his party says, partly by his on-going battle with BJP leader and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Mr Sangma has been heartily endorsed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. She enjoys a good rapport with Mr Modi: he attended her swearing-in ceremony when she was sworn in last year; she sent emissaries to represent her at his “sadbhavana mission” fast in Gandhinagar.

Mr Kumar’s party said this week that it will quit the NDA if the BJP  selects  the Gujarat chief minister as its prime ministerial candidate for the next general election. The communal riots on Gujarat in 2002 have made Mr Modi an unwanted guest for the Bihar chief minister, who banned him from campaigning in the state for the last assembly and general elections.

This month, Mr Modi took a swipe at Mr Kumar at a Gujarat rally, accusing Bihar leaders of “caste politics.”  The growing animosity of the two leaders, and the divide over the presidential elections, suggests the alliance between Mr Kumar and the BJP may be approaching its end.

In Bihar, a rally against rising prices today, organized by the BJP to highlight the UPA’s inefficiencies at the centre,  caused more problems. Shivanand Tiwari of the Janata Dal (United) said that even if the visiting Ravi Shankar Prasad were Finance Minister, he would not be able to check inflation.  That’s again a salvo from Mr Kumar’s party that targets his partner, while defending their supposed common enemy, the  Congress.