Commentary
* When locals supported blockade, Mahato put himself at its forefront
* When it lost support, Yadav tried to put the blame on Mahato
* But Mahato turned the table on Yadav seeing that the blockade would not last long
After cross-border trade resumed in Birgunj following months of blockade, Madheshi Morcha stands divided, and the tussle between its leaders, especially Rajendra Mahato and Upendra Yadav, no longer remains a matter of speculation.
In the contest to gain sympathy over Madeshi voters, who has the advantage now? For now, at least for some time, it is Mahato, who has the upper hand.
In the contest to gain sympathy over Madeshi voters, who has the advantage now? For now, at least for some time, it is Mahato, who has the upper hand.
Province No. 2, the heartland of the Madhesh, has two power centres: Janakpur and Birgunj. In Janakpur, Mahato’s general, party leader Sanjay Shah, was in command, in terms of popular support. But Shah was convicted in the Janakpur Blast case, and now Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party (Mahantha Thakur’s party) wants to become the dominant force there; the party’s vice-president Brisheh Chandra Lal has been stationed there to do just that.
In Birgunj, Upendra Yadav’s Forum Nepal is the dominant force. During the blockade, Mahato made sure he was seen with the blockade enforcers in Birgunj so that locals would believe he was the one dedicated to the Madheshi cause. But his main motive in doing so was to gain sympathy of local voters.
That Mahato never agreed to review Morcha’s agitation, until recently, is also an indication that Mahato was in a bid to make his presence felt in Birgunj, which had come to symbolise the Madheshi movement after all other border points reopened soon after the ‘blockade’ was announced (by the Morcha).
In the meantime, Upendra Yadav unilaterally declared that his party would now focus on Kathmandu-centric
protests. Sources tell Onlinekhabar that Upendra Yadav tried to turn the tables on Mahato for being the one responsible for the blockade, after the blockade became unpopular with the locals.
But Mahato understood this, and retaliated, that too in a big way. In an unexpected move, he told the media that the blockade no longer made sense to him. Morcha sources say the statement came as Mahato saw that it would only be a matter of days before locals forcefully ended the blockade.
Mahato’s statement had a big role to play in ending the blockade, bigger than what Mahato himself would have imagined. Just a day after he spoke, local people chased away Morcha sympathisers enforcing the four-month-long blockade.
On Friday, when trucks started entering Nepal from India through the Miteri Bridge, TMLP’s Jitendra Sonal tried to make his party’s presence felt. He claimed that Morcha would strike back with reenforcement, but that could not materialise. Sonal is back in Kathmandu with a conclusion that Birgunj has reopened for good.
Both Mahato and Yadav are in Kathmandu. But they are not talking to each other. Nonetheless, it would be Mahato, who would be counting his blessings.
