With months to go for the Lok Sabha polls, the Janata Dal (United) on Friday is likely to make some crucial decisions regarding its organisational set-up. The buzz since last week has been that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to take over the party leadership too, with current JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh, popularly known as Lalan Singh, stepping down. But Singh has dismissed this as a rumour.
As per the speculation in party circles, Lalan Singh is out of favour with Nitish because of his alleged proximity to JD(U)’s ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). As Lalmani Verma reported from the JD(U) office in New Delhi on Thursday, Lalan Singh’s name and photograph were missing from the posters welcoming Nitish and other leaders. These posters had been put up by the party’s Delhi unit. Almost half an hour after the meeting started at 4 pm, a new poster was placed on the party office premises. But even though the poster carried Lalan Singh’s photograph, it was smaller than that of JD(U)’s Delhi president Shailendra Kumar.
Sources in the JD(U) told Santosh Singh that Lalan Singh had been trying hard to stay on arguing that his resignation would “signal the weakening of the party” and would hamper the party and the INDIA alliance of Opposition parties. But another section of party leaders has been trying to persuade Nitish to take control of the party to ensure “unilateral command to the party rank and file”. The national executive meeting will begin around 11.30 am and the JD(U) national council meeting is scheduled to start at 3.30 pm.
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Shot in the arm for BJP
The pro-talks faction of ULFA, a separatist outfit founded in 1979 to wage an armed struggle for an independent Assam, will sign a tripartite memorandum of settlement with the Union and state governments in New Delhi on Friday. The peace accord will be signed at 5 pm in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is also expected to be present.
The ULFA pro-talks faction will be represented by a 16-member delegation led by its chairperson Arabinda Rajkhowa. Two top leaders of the Rajkhowa group have been in the National Capital since last week. According to PTI, the outfit’s general secretary, Anup Chetiaheld talks with peace interlocutor A K Mishra on Tuesday. Along with Mishra, who is the government’s adviser on Northeast affairs, Intelligence Bureau’s Director Tapan Deka was part of the talks with the group.
In context: During the Assembly election campaigns in Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland earlier this year, the BJP emphasised the decline in militancy and the relative peace in the Northeast since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. Last month, Amit Shah announced the signing of a peace agreement with the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) in Manipur, a Meitei separatist group. And, now the ULFA accord will only bolster the party’s narrative.
But among the matters that remain to be achieved is a successful conclusion of the Naga peace process that has been hanging fire. The NSCN (I-M) which has been in a ceasefire with the Centre since 1997 signed a framework agreement with it in 2015 for a peace accord but this angered other groups that operate under the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG) umbrella. The demands for a separate flag and constitution have further stalled progress. In April, A K Mishra met a 20-member high-level NSCN-IM team led by its general secretary Th Muivah. The Naga insurgency, rooted in Naga nationalism, is one of the oldest insurgencies in the country.
Four years of Soren rule
The Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government completes four years on Friday. The government has decided to celebrate the occasion by distributing thousands of appointment letters at a public event in Ranchi. But neither Soren nor his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party has time to rest on their laurels since the Lok Sabha elections are a few months away and the Assembly polls are scheduled for the end of 2024.
The government faces a BJP that is attempting to corner it over alleged corruption and issues of governance. On Thursday, the Opposition party released a “chargesheet” against the Soren government, highlighting its alleged failure to fulfil promises the CM had made, including providing five lakh jobs. Soren has pushed back against that claim saying the employment rate had gone up in the state in the past four years.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 29-12-2023 at 07:21 IST
