By Rahil Nora Chopra
With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Rajya Sabha win, discussions around his successor have picked up pace in the state. Nitish Kumar dropped ample clues that he preferred Deputy CM and BJP leader Samrat Choudhary as his successor. Addressing a public gathering in Jamui as part of the fourth leg of his ongoing “Samriddhi Yatra”, Nitish placed his hand on Choudhary’s shoulder and appealed to the people to support him. With a smile, he remarked, “Now he (Samrat) would handle all the work, and urged people to bestow their blessings upon him.” Of course, BJP, which has emerged as the single largest party in the last assembly election, in all probabilities will stake claim to the chief ministership. Choudhary is number two in the Nitish cabinet, and at present he is holding the portfolio of the crucial home department also. Now Kumar’s endorsement of Choudhary appears to be part of a well-thought-out planning within the NDA alliance for a smooth transition.
2026 ASSAM ASSEMBLY POLLS: CONGRESS, RAIJOR DAL SEAL SEAT-SHARING PACT
The Congress and Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal have gone through a formal seat-sharing agreement for the 2026 Assam Assembly elections, with the opposition alliance allocating 11 constituencies to the regional outfit. The shift aims to unite opposition forces, strengthen anti-BJP strategy, and reshape electoral dynamics across key constituencies. Meanwhile, discussions are simultaneously underway with the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), the CPI(M), and CPI(Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, signalling that the final alliance picture is still taking shape. Under the agreement, Raijor Dal will field candidates in Digboi, Dhing, Manas, Tezpur, Sissiborgaon, Bokakhat, Sivasagar, Dalgaon, Kaliabor, Margherita, and Mariani. The two parties have also consented to run friendly contests in Goalpara East and Gauripur. The Congress-Raijor Dal pact could play a key role in shaping the electoral dynamics in several constituencies, particularly in Upper Assam, where both parties have a notable presence. Polling for the 126-member Assembly will take place on April 9, with counting scheduled for May 4.
RAHUL WRITES TO PM MODI: CONFER BHARAT RATNA ON DALIT ICON KANSHI RAM
The demand for conferring Bharat Ratna on Dalit icon and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram reverberated on his birth anniversary. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appealing to him to confer the Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram. In his letter to the prime minister, Modi, Rahul Gandhi said Kanshi Ram transformed the nature of Indian politics and, through his movements, raised political awareness among Bahujans and the poor. On the other hand, Mayawati said Kanshi Ram’s “contribution in creating an egalitarian society in the country, as enshrined in the Constitution, is historic, and for this reason, he too resides in the hearts of the people”. The Assembly poll in 2027 will be a highly important election for all the parties invoking Kanshi Ram’s legacy. Particularly for Mayawati, it will either a make or break at the polls after she led the BSP to the worst-ever show in the party’s history in the 2022 UP Assembly polls. Only one BSP MLA won in the 2022 poll. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has been pitching for the Samvidhan or Constitution, and its guarantees of equality, as a bedrock of his Dalit outreach which constituting about 21% of the voters in UP. Even as the SP, Congress and the BSP try to prove themselves as the right party for Dalits, the BJP’s focus is to keep intact non-Jatav Dalits in party fold and ensure that Jatavs don’t shift towards the Congress or SP. The BJP is better placed if Jatavs remain loyal to the BSP as this will only allow Mayawati to win a few seats. However, if Jatavs shift towards Congress-SP alliance, the combination of Muslims and Jatavs could become lethal for the BJP, especially in west UP.
ACTOR VIJAY RULES OUT JOINING NDA, UNDERLINING SECULAR CREDENTIALS
The speculation about the party joining the AIADMK-BJP alliance has come to an end as Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) chief and actor Vijay said he would never compromise on his secular credentials and asserted that his party would contest the assembly elections independently. Vijay chose an Iftar ceremony organized by his party to ascertain that the TVK will get into an alliance only with political parties that acknowledge his leadership. Vijay’s focus on secular ideology and social justice was to reassure minority votes and signal ideological distance from the BJP. With Congress firmly aligned with the DMK and the AIADMK-BJP combining to consolidate its own front, Vijay’s categorical announcement, the stage is set for a four-cornered contest between the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance, TVK, and Tamil nationalist Naam Tamizhar Katchi.
PRADYUT BORDOLOI, BHUPEN BORAH LEAVE ASSAM CONGRESS FOR BJP
The joining of two senior Assam Congress leaders, Pradyut Bordoloi and ex-state party chief Bhupen Borah, into the BJP fold within a month has not just derailed the party’s campaign for the Assembly elections, but has also severely jolted All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra. Reacting to the development, Congress MP and the party’s screening committee chairperson for Assam, Gandhi-Vadra, called Bordoloi’s decision unfortunate. She also suggested that differences over ticket distribution may have led to the decision. Bordoloi joined the BJP in the presence of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and state BJP chief Dilip Saikia. He blamed the Congress leadership of sidelining him, saying it led an end to his long association with the party amid claims of internal mistreatment. Meanwhile, Bordoloi’s exit is being viewed as a significant setback for the Congress in Assam, raising questions over internal cohesion at a time when the party is gearing up for a decisive electoral battle. (IPA Service)
