Lost opportunity

The Week: "BJP leaders are exasperated with Janata Dal United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar. They insist the Bihar Assembly dissolution could have been prevented and an NDA government installed in Patna, if Nitish had acted in time. A senior Patna bureaucrat had tipped Nitish off on May 22 morning that dissolution was imminent. Nitish immediately held discussions with BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley and JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, and they decided that the only way out was to stake claim to form the government right away. Though they didn’t have the numbers, with 17 independents behind them and Lok Janshakti Party rebels still trickling into BJP-controlled Jharkhand, Jaitley was convinced that a majority could be rustled up. A private aircraft was readied for Nitish to rush to Patna.
But Nitish dithered. Haunted perhaps by memories of his aborted attempt to become chief minister in 2000, he wanted to be sure of his numbers. On May 23 morning the Assembly was dissolved."