Patna: In 2011, then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi disallowed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patriarch L.K. Advani to undertake the last rath yatra of his career from the holy city of Somnath.Back then, Modi was locked in an internal battle within his party to replace Advani as the BJP’s face for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Advani then requested Nitish Kumar – who was heading the coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar – to let him undertake his yatra from Sitab Diara, the birthplace of Jayaprakash Narayan, the hero of the 1942 Quit India movement.Nitish – who has claimed to have never liked Modi’s brand of politics – accepted Advani’s request. His decision had encouraged senior BJP leaders – Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj – to accompany Advani at the rally.The Bihar chief minister – then a ‘star attraction’ in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that had successively lost the 2004 and 2009 elections – graced the occasion. However, while addressing a huge gathering at Sitab Diara, he said: “I am pleased to support your [Advani’s] yatra. But my support should not be construed as my acceptance of the BJP’s principles. The Janata Dal (United) and the BJP have basic differences in their world view that will continue. But I support your yatra on the issues of development and corruption”.Nitish also paid a tribute to the former prime minister, socialist icon and ardent disciple of JP, Chandra Shekhar.In Sitab Diara – which is nestled between the rivers Saryu and Ganga and is spread over Bihar’s Saran district and Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district – Chandra Shekhar built a magnificent memorial of JP.Nitish had said, “Our icon Chandra Shekhar ji belongs to Ballia. Chandrashekhar ji aap ke dharti ke laal the, aur hum sabke adarsh the (Chandra Shekhar ji was the son of your soil and our idol).” His words drew thunderous clapping from the audience.Thanks to Nitish’s support, Advani’s 2011 rath yatra – which proved to be the last of his career – was hugely successful.Advani’s yatra went to Varanasi, through Patna, Arra, Buxar and Sasaram in Bihar. Then deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, had accompanied him till Varanasi.Also read: Why Is Amit Shah Working Overtime in Bihar?No takers of saffron politicsOn October 11, Amit Shah visited Sitab Diara – his second visit to the state since the JD(U) snapped ties with the BJP in August this year – on the 120th birth anniversary of J.P. Narayan. It proved to be a lacklustre event.“Shah was accompanied by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Both Yogi and Shah are ‘persona non-grata’ at Sitab Diara. None of the activists of the JP movement visited the venue. Of course, a handful of the Yogi’s supporters from UP had gathered, but locals didn’t take notice of Shah and Yogi,” Yashwant Singh, 67, an activist who participated in the JP movement and is a resident of Sitab Diara, told this reporter.Speaking about Nitish’s decision to quit the NDA, Shah said at the event, “Nitish has gone to the lap of the Congress in the greed of the chair. It amounts to ditching the principles of Jayaprakash Narayan, who, along with Ram Manohar Lohia, fashioned anti-Congress-ism for their whole life.”Asked about Shah’s remarks, Shivanand Tiwary, a JP movement stalwart and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s national vice-president, said: “Amit Shah’s statement is downright wrong. The Socialist movement that JP and Lohia carried out were as much inspired by Gandhian philosophy as the politics of the Congress. Both JP and Lohia, like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, had their roots and training in the freedom struggle under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership. They had no difference whatsoever on the issues of secularism, diversity, pluralism and the larger idea of India. It was after Independence that Lohia and JP differed with Nehru on the models of development and taking India forward.”“They (JP and Lohia) fought against the dictatorship of the Congress that was in power at the Centre and in the states in the 1960s and 70s and not against its broader political principles. With the Modi-led BJP in power, India is undergoing its worst phase. The RSS-Jan Sangh-BJP has been opposed to Gandhi’s philosophy all along. The Sangh parivar was opposed to the freedom struggle from the very beginning. Amit Shah or Narendra Modi have no right to comment on JP and Lohia,” he said,Also read: How the RSS Became a Key Part of the Jayaprakash Narayan Movement Before Emergency‘RSS is Gandhi’s killer’Nitish, who is himself a product of the JP movement and an ardent disciple of Narayan, organised an event in Patna on the same day. The event was called “JP ki kahani-Nitish ki zubani (The story of JP by Nitish).Addressing the audience, Nitish asked, “Gandhi ka hatyara kaun tha (Who was Gandhi’s killer?)” The crowd screamed, “RSS, RSS.”Nitish then turned to reporters and asked, “What was the [role of the] man who is now the prime minister before he became the chief minister [of Gujarat]? Find it out. They [Modi and his team] had nothing to with the JP movement. Their political ancestors were opposed to the freedom struggle. And, today they are talking all rubbish.”Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar leaves after the swearing-in ceremony of Bihar cabinet ministers at Raj Bhavan, in Patna, August 16, 2022. Photo: PTIRJD president Lalu Prasad, who flew to Singapore on October 12 for kidney-related treatment, also lashed out at Modi and the RSS-BJP on both the days of his party’s national convention on October 9 and 10 in New Delhi. He called upon the “Opposition parties to unite and uproot the BJP from power” in the 2024 elections.Nitish further said that he had nothing against Shah visiting Bihar. But he asked the people to “stay alert and vigilant against the diabolical leaders (read RSS-BJP) who might fuel division and hatred on religious lines”. “We are the product of the JP movement. JP led us and loved us. He guided us and accepted our request to lead us,” he said.Also read: Hindutva and the Steady Politicisation of ReligionBJP appears to have lost the plotAfter Nitish left the saffron party and rejoined the mahagathbandhan, it appears that the BJP has lost the plot in Bihar. It’s basically leaderless in the state, which has the stalwarts like Lalu and Nitish still commanding overwhelming clout and respect in society.In an apparent bid to create their own brand of loyalists, particularly after the 2020 assembly elections, the Modi-Shah duo sidelined Sushil Kumar Modi, Nandkishore Yadav and Prem Kumar, who have three decades of experience and sizeable followings at the grassroots level.Instead, the duo promoted Nityanand Rai, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Tarkishore Prasad, among others, who were devoid of a reasonable base but were loyal to the new leadership.With Nitish deserting the BJP, the saffron party suddenly finds itself clueless. Of course, Sushil Modi – who still has better credibility in comparison to the ones Modi and Shah were promoting – has joined the forefront of his party’s battle against the mahagathbandhan but it is hard for Sushil to salvage his party in the given situation.While this was Shah’s second visit to Bihar since JD(U) snapped ties with the BJP, the saffron party seems to be under a grave crisis in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, at least in this state.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author and professor of journalism and mass communication at Invertis University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.