Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar wants the state assembly elections to be advanced. The term of the present state assembly ends in November next year. But Nitish wants the election to be held early next year, preferably along with the election for the Delhi state assembly, if possible.
The Delhi assembly elections are likely to be held either in late January or the first week of February. According to sources, Nitish is keen to improve his party’s assembly tally, which has fallen steadily over the last three elections from 115 seats in 2010 to 71 in 2015 down to 43 seats in the current assembly.
The JD(U) had attributed the steep fall in its numbers in the last assembly elections to the presence of a large number of candidates of Chirag Paswan’s party against his candidates. There were also murmurs of the BJP, which was Nitish’s ally, lending support to Chirag’s candidates. Sources in the JD(U) said the party does not want a similar situation to arise in the next election.
Pollster-turned-politician Prashant Kishor plans to launch a political party – Jan Suraaj – on Gandhi Jayanti next month. One of the reasons for the JD(U)’s move for an early election is to deny Kishor a chance to play the spoiler. Nitish feels that the JD(U)’s numbers in the current assembly do not reflect the party’s strength in the state and its performance in the last election was an aberration that needs to be corrected.
Policy Shift
Non-uniformed officers may not Head CAPF
The government of India is likely to change the policy for the appointment of the heads of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), namely CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, NSG, SSB and Assam Rifles. Sources said that the government may decide against posting non-uniformed officers as heads of CAPFs. All future appointments are likely to be made following this policy, they said.
There are currently two such officers heading these police organisations – Anish Dayal Singh as the Director General of the CRPF and Rahul Rasgotra as DG of ITBP. They were drawn from the Intelligence Bureau to head the uniformed CAPFs. Sources said both these officers are likely to be given new assignments and the slots may be filled with uniformed officers.
According to sources, Anish Dayal may be sent to the National Technical Research Organisation, where he is likely to take over either as an Advisor or as Chairman in place of Arun Sinha, whose term comes to an end next month. The government is in the process of effecting a major shake-up in the top leadership of CAPFs. It has already appointed Daljit Singh Chaudhary as DG, BSF and Rajwinder Singh Bhatti as DG, CISF.
Besides finding the replacements of Anish Dayal and Rasgotra in CRPF and ITBP, respectively, among other top appointments likely to be made soon are that of the DG of the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad. A hunt is also on to find a new DG, SSB, a post vacated by Daljit Singh.
Shahid Faridi
The writer is Resident Editor
TNIE, New Delhi.
Follow him on X @Shahid_Faridi