PATNA: Even after supporting the Citizenship Amended Act (CAA) in both the houses of Parliament, JDU, which is a major ally of National Democratic Alliance in Bihar seems to be heading towards another fresh face-off with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the issue of implemention of National Register of Citizens (NRC).
On Sunday, state minister and close political aide of CM Nitish Kumar, Ashok Choudhary vehemently said that JDU has always been against the implementation of NRC in Bihar and their stance remains the same. Before Choudhary, party's vice President and poll strategist Prashant Kishor had also said that Kumar is not in favour of implementing the NRC in Bihar.
Chaudhary after flagging off a cycle yatra on Sunday from Patna to Nalanda promoting the mission-Jal Jeevan Haryali, told the media that the party's stance on CAA is already clear as witnessed in the Parliament.
"But as far as NRC is concerned, the JDU has always made its stance clear not favouring it in Bihar", he said. Close on the heels of Chaudhary's statement, Union Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Giriraj Singh, who is known for his hard-hitting comments, said that NRC should be implemented across the country including Bihar and West Bengal. He said the NRC serves the best interests of country. A month ago, a tug of war over the same issue had ensued between the BJP and JDU.
A senior political observer of Patna, Dr BK Pandey said that alliance may fall in bad weather again over the issue of NRC as it has become a matter of political prestige as well as survival for both the JDU and BJP.
"No one would budge a point from its stance on it. JDU buoyed over recent two seats from Seemanchal, wouldn't like to be seen as anti-minority, that too when the elections are around the corner in the state. JDU has already has suffered from an impression crisis amongst the minority voters after it supported CAA", he said.
Sources said that the tug of war between these two parties over NRC would aggravate ahead which could affect the alliance.
Meanwhile, national spokesperson of BJP Dr Nikhil Anand tried his best to downplay this emerging confrontation. He tweeted soon after the statements of leaders of both these leaders of JDU and BJP: "Politics is not played on preconceptions or conceived notions. A politician suffering from cynicism will only lead to the situation of political withdrawal and helplessness.No need to create propaganda over#NRC now. It's a future agenda. Wait for the draft to study it".