In Eulogy To Partnership, Sharad Yadav Drops (Some) Rancour For Nitish Kumar

Patna: Sharad Yadav told NDTV that he would like to offer "a thank you" to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on whose instructions Mr Yadav has been laid off as their party's leader in the Rajya Sabha where they have nine members.  However, Mr Yadav wasn't entirely sarcastic about the Chief Minister. "He played a perfect host to me, and we did some good work together," said the 70-year-old. 

The political eulogy he offers is not premature. Since Mr Kumar resurrected his party's relationship with the BJP on July 26, Mr Yadav, who co-ran the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) has made it clear that he will now go his own way.  Though as many as 14 state branches of the party have in writing backed Mr Yadav's faction as the real JD(U), the truth is that not one of its 71 state legislators or MLAs showed up in support of Mr Yadav on his tour of Bihar last week. 

Today, the JD(U)  suspended 21 leaders in Bihar for indulging in "anti-party activities".

In 2003, Mr Kumar merged his Samata Party with Mr Yadav's Janata Dal. They were a member of the BJP-led coalition for 17 years. In 2013, when then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was made its nominee for Prime Minister, Mr Kumar removed his party from the coalition.  The repercussions were huge. In the national election, Mr Kumar, seen as a popular leader, won just two of Bihar's parliamentary seats. Under Mr Modi, the BJP won more than 30. 

To ensure his re-election, when Bihar came up for state elections, Mr Kumar abandoned a hostile past with Lalu Yadav to enter a partnership with him and the Congress. The force of their combined support groups, based on caste, thwarted the PM's bid to wrest Bihar away for the BJP. 

But the partnership was always a fraught one and in recent months, decomposed over an assortment of corruption cases against Lalu Yadav and his family. Announcing his "conscience would not allow" him to remain in the arrangement, Mr Kumar called the whole thing off. It was clear a Plan B had been carefully prepared. Within an hour, he was renewing his vows with the BJP and they formed a new government together. 

This weekend, Mr Yadav will not attend the JD(U)'s large meeting in Patna where Mr Kumar is expected to announce that the party has resolved to expel Mr Yadav and that it will rejoin the BJP's national collation . Mr Yadav has made it clear that he will side with the anti-BJP front of 17 parties that includes Lalu Yadav and is anchored by the Congress. The Bihar Chief Minister had helped conceive and shape the league, till he strode away from it, depleting it of much of its potency. 

" I did a lot for Nitish and he did a lot for me," said Mr Yadav to ndtv.com, breaking with his recent trend of harsh criticism for his partner. "But I cannot accept the move to go back to the BJP."