By Arun Srivastava
On March 5, the day, Nitish Kumar filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha in Patna, accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, he tweeted, “I seek to become a member of the Rajya Sabha in the elections being held this time. I want to assure you with complete honesty that my relationship with you will continue in the future as well, and my resolve to work together with you to build a developed Bihar will remain steadfast. The new government that will be formed will have my full cooperation and guidance.”
This tweet had a mysterious perception as well as a message. It came from a politician who during his 20 years as chief minister had initiated a number of his friends as the Rajya Sabha members. His tweet is complex, like the person, the writer, himself. What was equally intriguing was his pledge. “express a long-held desire to serve in both houses”.
On the face Nitish aimed to become a member of the Rajya Sabha to satisfy a long-held personal ambition of serving in all four legislative bodies (Assembly, Council, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha). The move also facilitates a shift toward a national political role for the NDA, while navigating Bihar’s shifting political power dynamics and leadership transition. But the primary factor was he would not have to work directly under the leadership of Narendra Modi or Amit Shah. In Rajya Sabha he would enjoy his own liberty and freedom. Moving to the upper house offers a role in broader policymaking and strengthens his position within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the national level.
Of course for some physical problem, he has not been able to devote too much to the political activities and made space for his junior colleagues, who ironically have been exploiting the situation to identify with Modi and Amit Shah and showing Nitish in poor light. But he knew well that for keeping his support base intact ,he would have to assert his authority and it could be done only through independent assertion. The move will also mark a major shift in Bihar politics, allowing him to step away from the daily demands of state administration while enabling the BJP, which emerged as the largest party, to take a leading role in the state. Nevertheless, despite the move, it is certain he would continue to oversee affairs in Bihar while in his new role, say.
Nitish knew that once he quits as the chief minister, Bihar will witness a new type of succession battle for the next power centre. He has been the balancing force between various diverse social and political forces, having divergent unearthly forces. There is a general perception that Nitish continued in power for 20 years as he provided a good governance (shusasan). But it is not the truth. He in fact managed to balance various classes, OBC, EBC and upper castes. It is a known fact that Mahadalits (extremely backwards) had antagonistic relation with the upper caste Bhumihars and Brahmins. No other leader, not even RJD chief Lalu Yadav was capable to unite all the castes.
Like Lalu, Nitish too belonged to backward castes, but he did not allow dominant OBC Kurmi and Koiris, or even upper castes to dominate over the EBC and Dalits. On the contrary Lalu did not put a check on the aptitude of his caste men Yadavs to “oil the lathi (stick)”. This in fact had scared the EBC and Dalits and they parted company.
Though there is doubt about BJP having his own man as the chief minister, Nitish has openly opposed its design to install an upper caste as chief minister. Barely a fortnight back, at a public meeting he projected Samrat Choudhary as the chief minister. At present Deputy Chief Minister, Chaudhary belongs to the Koeri, an OBC community. He is a prominent OBC leader in Bihar, often seen as a key figure in the BJP’s outreach to the ‘Luv-Kush’ (Kurmi-Koeri) voting bloc.
Nitish knew that he cannot survive under Lalu Yadav and primarily this was the reason he followed his own political path, forming at least three political parties, beginning with Samata Party, at various times. One thing is absolutely clear that in case BJP leadership, Modi and Shah, prefer to thrust a leader of their choice as chief minister, they would be committing a blunder. BJP would have to decide the new chief minister in consultation with Nitish. Apparently the induction of new chief minister would look like beginning of new political phase, but if the BJP really intends to survive and expand, it must have a new type of social engineering, completely different from the prevailing phenomenon. Modi-Shah must not strive to define the politics and must not look at the development from the narrow prism of future Hindu Rashtra. It must symbolise continuation of two-decade political era of Nitish.
Already signs of assertion of upper caste strongmen have started surfacing. A brutal incident occurred in Forbesganj, Araria on April 9, 2026, where a 42-year-old pickup van driver was beheaded in public. The victim, identified as Nabi Hussain from Jogbani, was murdered following an argument with a local vendor over a parking issue at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee gate in Forbesganj. The accused, identified as Ravi Chauhan (30), used a sharp weapon to decapitate the victim in broad daylight in front of onlookers. This is not the first case of broad day light killing. Ever since NDA government came to power the upper caste mercenaries have become active and a number of killings have taken place.
Some JD(U) leaders had strongly projected Nishant, son of Nitish as the new chief minister, But the ground realities do not help him. He is a political novice and Bihar needs an astute politician. In this regard one development ought to be taken note of. Posters carrying pictures of Samrat Choudhary, projecting him as chief minister were put up at state B JP office. But in Thursday, the posters were torn down by the BJP cadres. This is seen as BJP protest to Samrat becoming CM.
Nevertheless to keep the spirit of social engineering created by Nitish, a demand is being made to induct his son Nishant as the deputy chief minister. This would keep happy the divergent social groups that are the parts of the NDA. Meanwhile some JD(U) leaders who nurse strong antagonism towards BJP, are also planning to shift to RJD. They feel B JP with upper caste dominance will endanger their existence. They fear with Nitish relinquishing the office of C M, the BJP will finish the independent relevance of JD(U), as it has done with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra . With Nitish continuing to be active in national politics, with his stay in the Rajya Sabha, he aims to play effective role to protect the interest of the state and its people. (IPA Service)
