By Arun Srivastava
Within a week of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s vow that he “would prefer to die instead of having an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) once again”, rumour of prime minister Narendra Modi offering a very senior position in his cabinet to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, probably next to him, is reverberating in the political circle of the state.
It is said that Modi is also not averse to the proposal of inducting two more senior JD(U) leaders in his government. Nevertheless the offer has come with a rider; the post of the chief minister should come to the BJP. Though some senior JD(U) leaders outright denied any such offer, the sources maintain that Nitish at no cost will accept this nature of offer and allow the BJP to grab the power.
The JD(U) leaders hold that this is purely a mischievous design of the saffron ecosystem to malign Nitish’s image and also to create confusion amongst the opposition parties about his move to bring them on common platform. They recall that Nitish in presence of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav had emphatically said; “Mar jaana qabool hai lekin unke saath jaana hum ko kabhi qabool nahin hai (I would rather die than join hands with the BJP again”.
The pitch for such rumour mongering has been laid by two developments; first the strained relationship between the RJD and JD(U) and second, KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) rally in Telangana’s Khammam where the participant leaders did not object to BRS projecting KCR as the “desh ka neta” (Leader of the country). No doubt KCR’s rally has been a major setback to Nitish Kumar’s plan to unite non-BJP parties against Narendra Modi and form the “Main Front” ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Though KCR’s rally has sounded a discordant note in the opposition rank, Nitish is really worried of the participation of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and CPI national general secretary D Raja. In the initial stage of his unity move Nitish, during his three day visit to Delhi, had met these leaders and they have responded positively to his idea. Their participation in fact has strengthened the perception of BJP leaders that Nitish’s initiative did not much bearing on the opposition leaders.
Bihar and Telangana feature at the top of the hit list of BJP. With Nitish in power in alliance with RJD, BJP cannot think of making a significant gain in the state. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election the NDA had won 39 seats which included 16 seats won by JD(U) as an ally. The caste composition does not favour the BJP. The OBC and Dalits have acute antagonistic relations with the supper caste support base of the BJP. In Telangana too the BJP is finding going tough.
If somehow Nitish agrees to rejoin the NDA, it will prove to be boon for the party in Bihar and also Telangana. With this in view the BJP is indulging in game of rumour mongering.
While RJD legislators have been consistently insinuating against Nitish, the party leadership is not willing to give too much time to Nitish for relinquishing the office. Within seven months of the mahagathbandhan coming to power, replacing the NDA, the chasm between the RJD and JD(U) has started widening with both parties engaging in a verbal spat against each other. Sudhakar Singh son of the state chief of RJD Jagadanand Singh has been consistently inflicting damage to the image of Nitish, but the RJD leaders, especially its national president Lalu Yadav has refrained from taking any action against him.
The entire controversy erupted following the deaths in Bihar’s Chhapra that were caused due to the consumption of hooch. After the incident, Sudhakhar Kumar hit out at the Bihar CM, calling him a dictator and accusing him of genocide.
JDU’s chief of the parliamentary board Upendra Kushwaha has of late opened a front against Nitish. He enjoys a good rapport with the BJP leaders. It is alleged that he has been attacking Nitish at the behest of the BJP. If the sources are to be believed, BJP is contemplating to repeat its Maharashtra game in Bihar through Kushwaha. Of course he cannot damage Nitish, but the political irritant that he has succeeded to inject in the state, has put on back foot.
Nitish Kumar Is at a crossroads. The trust deficit has acquired a significant proportion which his confidant concede that Nitish has never faced in his entire political career. In such a situation instead of relying on political imperatives and manoeuvrings, Nitish has fallen upon the bureaucracy. His latest Samadhan Yatra is primarily dependent on the involvement of bureaucracy. He has envisaged this as the Duare Sarkar of Mamata Banerjee, but it lacks political involvement. Even the RJD leaders are not quite enthusiastic of the programme.
With the view to pacify his RJD critics, in December he reiterated; “The Mahagathbandhan will contest the 2025 (Bihar) assembly polls under the leadership of (Deputy CM) Tejashwi Yadav,” it does not appear to have made significant impact on the RJD leaders and cadres. In his speech Nitish emphasised on three issues; this would be his last tenure as Bihar CM, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav will be his political heir, and allies must not create confusion about him stepping down before the 2024 general election. (IPA Service)
