But now the BJP is so anguished at the development that its senior leader and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi has threatened the Congress with dire consequences as people would avenge the insult of a dalit. "Choudhary's family has served Congress for the last over 50 years," he cautioned. Their reaction is the manifestation of their failure to split the Congress. Though for the time being the euphoria in the saffron circles has proved to be short lived, the mood prevailing in the NDA is indicator to the fact that Nitish and his lieutenant Modi would continue to resort to their tactics.

Nevertheless, it is an open secret that none but the senior Bihar Congress leaders are to be blamed for the creation of the crisis, which has threatened the survival the party in the state. Gone are the days when leaders of the party were committed to the ideology and followed the party’s political line. But now the scenario has changed, with real politic and pragmatism defining their approach.

Recently, after Nitish split the mahagathbandhan and joined hands with the BJP to revive the NDA government, some senior Congress led by Ashok Choudhary had planned to split the party and join the JD(U). In principle the state BJP leadership was not opposed to this move, but they had their own condition: these leaders have to form a separate party and approach the BJP, not Nitish Kumar, expressing their desire to join the NDA. The BJP intended to seize the opportunity and present itself as the bigger player. The real reason for both the leaders rooting for Ashok Choudhary has been his political background; first he is the son of a famous dalit leader and second, he represents the modern face of dalit politics.

By and large most of the 18 Congress legislators who had decided to split the party were not opposed to this proposition, but for some of them it was below their dignity. It smacked of a design to humiliate them. In politics they have been quite senior to the present set of state BJP leaders. For them joining the JD(U) was more pragmatic than to get the nod of the BJP. Succumbing to the dictates of the BJP would have sent the wrong message that these leaders were at the mercy of the BJP leadership. This would have also weakened Nitish’s grip on the state politics.

Ashok might have retraced but it was the incorrect handling of the situation by the central leadership of Congress that precipitated the crisis. Even during the days of the grand alliance government Lalu had made it a point to humiliate him. He would often do it without any plausible reason. Lalu had formed the habit of insulting the Congress leaders. He is aware of the fact that the Congress leaders are incapable of ensuring their victory at the polls. They needed crutches. This feeling made him ill-treat the Congress leader. Lalu also nursed the feeling that the Congress leaders were close to Nitish.

A senior leader revealed that it was primarily for his arrogant style and insulting behaviour that most of the Congress legislators were ready to rebel and quit the party. They point out that it was at the initiative of Nitish that Congress was allotted 40 seats to contest in the 2015 Assembly polls. Lalu was not in favour of giving more than 20 seats. Unfortunately for them both Sonia and Rahul preferred Lalu to Nitish.

In fact, a major chunk of the Congress leaders are not in favour of allowing Lalu to dictate to the state party though they are not opposed to his leadership. Majority of the Congress leaders blame the party high command for allowing Lalu to have his way. "Lalu gives the impression that he is above the Congress high command. Congress cannot survive without his support.” A senior leader said; "Laluji's confidence has increased ever since Nitish Kumar walked out of the Grand Alliance." What has hurt the state leaders most is the feudal style of lordship by Lalu. Instead of treating them as leaders of a party, he issues whips and commands. Recently he scoffed at the state Congress leadership, saying he doesn't speak to them; “if the need arise, I would talk to Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi.” He was reacting to a statement by Congress Legislature Party chief Sadanand Singh, who said his party must sort out how many seats it would contest in an alliance with the RJD in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The factor that slowed down the process of split was the appointment of the new president of the state Congress. Ashok was under the impression that the high command would maintain status quo. It would not succumb to the pressure tactics of his detractors, who owe their allegiance to Lalu. However, it was his closeness to Nitish that jeopardised his position and stature. The high command wanted to bring in someone who would not trade off the interest of the party and also not allow the party to be subservient to the RJD chief.

Nevertheless, the Congress leadership has decided to continue its ties with Lalu Prasad's RJD in Bihar at least till the 2019 elections. It intends to bring in an upper caste leader, either a Brahmin or Bhumihar as the state president. Congress feels that with Lalu as an ally, who holds command on backwards and minority votes, an upper caste leader as president would help to attract its traditional Brahmin and Bhumihar votes, which has of late shifted its allegiance to BJP.

The “BJP bhagao, desh bachao rally’’ organised by RJD in Patna was meant to serve two purposes: first, to project him as the leader of the secular forces and secondly, to outwit the Congress as the true secular force. It is a paradox that both Nitish and Lalu have the Congress as their target. While Nitish was seething with revenge for giving too much credence to Lalu and denying him the responsibility to unite the opposition, Lalu has been cut up with Rahul for not confiding in him. Lalu could not digest the feeling that Rahul does not trust him. But an astute politician, Lalu has refrained from airing his feelings. This has been the basic difference between the big brother and the younger brother.

The intensity of bad blood between the Congress and RJD got revealed ahead of the August 27 rally of RJD. The Congress leaders in Bihar were not willing to attend the event. They were quite ebullient that neither Sonia Gandhi nor Rahul Gandhi would attend. Ashok Chaudhary had also decided to skip the programme and had finalised plans to visit the flood-hit districts in Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region along with four MLAs on the day of the rally. But eventually at the instance of the party leadership he stayed back. (IPA Service)