No one thought Lalu-Nitish could last, but they are a perfect couple

Running a coalition government consisting of political parties with different ideologies is no mean task. It becomes all the more difficult if the stakeholders put personal agenda ahead of their alliance interests.

A number of multi-party governments have fallen by the wayside across the country in the past because of the vaulting ambitions of the coalition partners.

That is why few people in the opposition expected chief minister Nitish Kumar to pass muster as the leader of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar.

However, he has faced no major problem from his allies - the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress - since he took over the reins of the government for his third successive term about seven months ago. Nitish has had a long experience of running coalition governments.

He headed the NDA government in Bihar for seven-and-a-half years before walking out of his alliance with the BJP. He was also part of the Union government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

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Still, the naysayers predicted early doom for his government in his fresh term. With the emergence of the RJD as the biggest party in the alliance, they expected Nitish to kowtow to Lalu for the survival of his government.

However, nothing of that sort has happened so far. Nitish and Lalu apparently know it well that they need to run the coalition government with mutual trust. Any major dispute will be detrimental to the prospects of both the leaders.

Although it is still too early to say whether the two will continue to adhere to the basic tenets of the coalition dharma during the remaining tenure of their government, they have avoided treading on each other's toes by amicably sorting out the contentious issues so far.

From the selection of non-controversial ministers to the candidates for the recent Rajya Sabha and the state Legislative Council elections, they have taken each other into confidence before reaching any major decision.

Most significantly, they have resolved to not interfere if any leader of their respective party is caught on the wrong side of the law. The recent "toppergate" scam in the Bihar School Examination Board required both the leaders to act quickly when allegations of the involvement of the people supposedly close to the state government surfaced.

The Janata Dal (United) suspended its former MLA Usha Sinha when she and husband Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh emerged as key accused in the case.

The government also gave the police a free hand to arrest the absconding couple.

Lalu, on his part, disowned Bachcha Rai, the alleged kingpin in the scam, after the opposition traced his links with his party. The RJD president made it clear that nobody involved in the scam would be shielded from the law.

In the past six months, many legislators have been involved in different criminal cases but none of them ever enjoyed any political patronage because of their allegiance to the ruling alliance.

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Over the years, Nitish has been known to have kept his party leaders at arm's length once their names figured in criminal cases but this is certainly a new facet of Lalu's personality.

In the past, Lalu was often accused of turning a blind eye to the misdeeds of the people close to him. During the previous RJD regime, he refrained from taking any action against his brothers-in-law, Sadhu and Subhash Yadav, whenever they were accused of breaking the law.

Lalu appears to have become wiser from his experience now. With his sons, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap, commencing their political innings with key ministerial berths, he has no reason to lock horns with Nitish for the sake of his wayward party leaders.

As of now, Lalu and Nitish are working in tandem as allies and do not seem to be in a hurry to fritter away the mandate given to them by the people of Bihar. The doubting Thomases, therefore, will have to remain in the waiting mode.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)