A dramatic week has unfolded in Bihar politics. It saw the Bharatiya Janata Party adding three more legislators to become the single largest party in the state assembly for the first time. The party’s gain, however, has meant a jolt to the Mukesh Sahani-led Vikassheel Insaan Party – an NDA ally which couldn’t prevent three of its MLAs from leaving the party to join the BJP.
As the switchover took the BJP tally from 74 to 77 legislators, it inched past the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the key party in the opposition mahagathbandhan with 75 MLAs in the 243-member assembly. For a number of reasons, including the symbolic, the BJP is keen on making the psychological edge of the new numbers known. Even if the party had reached a higher tally of 91 in the 2010 polls, its NDA partner Janata Dal (United), after all, was the one with most seats. And in view of the wafer-thin majority of the ruling coalition and the fractured electoral verdict of the last assembly polls, the party is now seeing its newfound status as a late booster in its battles within the NDA as well as against the opposition.
