Grand Alliance to have coordination committee to ensure it does not meet NDA’s fate

There were indications to this effect on Friday evening when MLAs of the CPI(ML), the fourth largest constituent of the Grand Alliance, called on the Chief Minister, the JD(U)’s de facto leader, at his residence.

A coordination committee, which the JD(U) kept pressing for while in the BJP-led NDA, may be set up to ensure smooth functioning of the “Mahagathbandhan” (Grand Alliance) that now rules Bihar upon the entry of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

There were indications to this effect on Friday evening when MLAs of the CPI(ML), the fourth largest constituent of the Grand Alliance, called on the Chief Minister, the JD(U)’s de facto leader, at his residence.

“The Chief Minister was strongly in favour of a coordination committee and we felt the same. No ally is likely to have any objection. It may, therefore, come up in due course,” CPI(ML) MLA Sandeep Saurav told PTI.

The Grand Alliance at present comprises seven parties — JD(U), RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), CPI, CPI(M) and HAM — which together have more than 160 MLAs in the 243-strong assembly.

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya had also demanded a coordination committee. Notably, while the JD(U) and the BJP were still in an acrimonious tie-up, many leaders of the former had stressed the need for a coordination committee which was in place during Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time with Mr. George Fernandes as its convenor.

JD(U) leaders were of the view that the absence of such a committee left different constituents with no platform to voice their divergent opinions before each other and hence they ended up doing so in the media, leading to deterioration in relations.

Though the BJP seems firmly in saddle with a brute majority in the Lok Sabha, the NDA is in tatters, with most of its prominent constituents including TDP, Shiv Sena and Siromani Akali Dal, now out of the coalition.