THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar played his political gamble well enough before the State turned into another Maharashtra. Kumar cleverly reined in BJP's ambitious plans to extinct regional political parties and set the political platform for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Kumar's well-timed move has been applauded by the political experts and it is only valid for certain reasons. Given the reigning party's pattern of eliminating rival political leaders through ED, ITD and CBI, the Janata Dal United supremo's decision to depart from BJP is indeed courageous.
Bihar's politics has primarily revolved around the issue of casteism but the recent years have shown a slightly different trend. The common people are now demanding betterment in other areas hoping to attain facilities that are available in other States. Kumar is well aware that these demands are not possible to fulfill without the Centre's assistance and yet, he has chosen to walk a risky path with Tejashwi Yadav and his party. He understood BJP's sly strategy of forming an alliance with a regional party, strengthening their own roots and then shelving the alliance after achieving a desired number. Kumar was able to take such a well-calculated decision after learning from the Akali Dal in Punjab and Shiv Sena's fate in Maharashtra. Kumar let the Rashtriya Janata Dal extend their party in Bihar instead of waiting for BJP to turn hostile while Tejashwi Yadav returned the favour by letting Kumar to continue being the chief minister.
An opposition consisting of various parties against BJP was built in Maharashtra which was decimated by the saffron party's leaders from Delhi. BJP's execution was so disciplined that the doubt over the rift within the Sena was unable to be construed by even the seasoned political leaders. Kumar was aware of Bihar following the suit and his timely switch has saved him his chair. Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal was able to keep her crown despite BJP's all high profile leaders giving their best during the campaigns. Nitish Kumar was with BJP and although JD's influence had withered, the BJP had still kept the control of the steering wheel with Kumar.
Either Kumar or Banerjee, their ambition to lead the central government has never been a secret. Congress might be leading the United Progressive Alliance but currently their battles are limited only to their own existence. An obvious gap between the public and Congress has occurred due to the lack of leadership with a new approach. Therefore, the opposition parties will have to search for a non-Congress face if they are to contest against BJP nationwide in 2024. That search may lead to Banerjee or Kumar and thus, Kumar's well-timed political gamble may reap surprising gains for himself. He may hand over the State's administration to Yadav and jump into national politics.
Janata Dal (United), RJD and Janata Dal (Secular) are the parties with similar ideology and so, forming a coalition is hardly a surprise. However, Nitish Kumar is known to frequently change his partnerships and will now have to focus on gaining the trust in terms of stability. Samata Party, an offshoot of the Janata Dal, was formed in 1994 by Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes which went on to form an alliance with BJP. George and Kumar (Railways) both were ministers during Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. After Lalu Prasad formed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 2003, Kumar merged Samata Dal into Janata Dal and renamed it as Janata Dal (United). Kumar called off the alliance with BJP in 2013 after the saffron party announced Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister's candidate. Kumar stressed on safeguarding his secular image instead of going ahead with Modi who was closely associated with Gujarat riots.
In 2015, the Grand Alliance of Nitish Kumar, Lalu and Congress attained overwhelming majority. Kumar became CM while Tejashwi was appointed as the deputy chief minister of Bihar. However, Nitish Kumar brought an abrupt end to his association with the Grand Alliance amidst accusations of corruption. Kumar was successful in maintaining his CM's chair by constantly switching his alliances but this could lead to putting a question mark on his political reputation. He was seen as a capable competitor to Modi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and his ideology was agreeable to many of the opposition parties. But in spite of that, Kumar ended up partnering with BJP itself. Rahul Gandhi's leadership is not acceptable to other like-minded parties. Mamata Banerjee has limitations. Sharad Pawar does not have the backing of Congress and Telangana's K Chandrashekar Rao has backing of no one. Nitish Kumar's leadership could be agreeable to all but what about the reputation?
