NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar seems to have some uncanny connection with political doors. In 2023, Amit Shah had shut “BJP doors” for the JD(U) chief and yet he managed to open it and go inside. Two years later, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad again opened “Mahagathbandhan doors” for Nitish but the chief minister says he is not interested.
Last week, Lalu Prasad triggered fresh speculations about realignment in Bihar politics when he said that doors were open for Nitish Kumar if the JD(U) president showed willingness to snap ties with the BJP which represented “communal forces.”
Nitish Kumar, whose several political U-turns in the past have given him the dubious distinction of being the “paltu ram” of Bihar politics, responded with a categorical ‘No’ to Lalu’s offer and ruled out quitting the NDA this time around. The JD(U) chief went on to call his two short-lived alliances with the RJD-Congress combine a “mistake”. With Lalu’s offer putting the focus back on his previous flip-flops, Nitish invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee perhaps to add credibility to his claims of allegiance to the BJP.
“It was respected Atal ji who made me a Union minister. He used to shower so much of affection on me. I never faced any difficulty in getting my proposals cleared. It was Vajpayee’s wish that “I become the CM” when the NDA first won assembly polls in Bihar in 2005,” Nitish told reporters in Vaishali district, which he toured as part of the state-wide ‘Pragati Yatra’.
Lalu’s remarks on Nitish followed Amit Shah’s interview last month to a news channel in which he was asked whether the NDA could go to polls in Bihar without declaring a chief ministerial candidate, like it recently did with great success in Maharashtra. When asked whether Nitish Kumar would be the face of the NDA in the upcoming Bihar elections or if the BJP would adopt a strategy similar to Maharashtra’s, Shah chose not to give a clear answer. “We will sit together and decide over the issue. Once we take a decision, we will let you know,” he said, adding that such policy decisions are not made in public forums.
Shah’s response led to speculations that the BJP could insist on not projecting Nitish Kumar, who had been leading Bihar’s NDA charge for close to a couple of decades, in the 2025 assembly polls. The state BJP leaders soon swung into damage control mode. Dilip Jaiswal, state minister and Bihar BJP chief said, “We should understand that Amit Shah was trying to underscore that he was a ‘karyakarta’ (worker) of a party in which big decisions are taken by the parliamentary board”. “But, the leadership role of chief minister Nitish Kumar had been a given for long. There is no question of going back on that,” asserted Jaiswal.
Ironically, in 2023, it was Amit Shah who had led the charge against Nitish Kumar after the JD(U) chief dumped the BJP and joined hands with RJD and Congress. Amit Shah had then accused Nitish Kumar of changing from “Vikaswadi to Avsarwadi” and had also taken swipes at his prime ministerial ambitions.
However, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has changed the equations within NDA. Both the BJP and the JD(U) won 12 seats each in the state. But the BJP is now dependent on Nitish Kumar’s crucial support to run its government at the Centre. Surely, Nitish Kumar will extract a cost for this help especially after being reduced to being the junior partner in Bihar assembly. The BJP, which was the junior partner in the coalition till 2015, surged ahead of the JD(U) in the 2020 assembly elections. Nitish Kumar was reduced to 43 seats in the assembly while the BJP increased its tally to 74.
On the other hand, the RJD, which has emerged as the single largest party in the last two assembly elections, is going all out to form a government in 2025. Tejashwi Yadav, who has served two stints as deputy chief minister of the state under Nitish Kumar, had led the RJD campaign in the last elections and managed to put up an impressive show. Tejashwi is confident that Nitish Kumar will be voted out in the elections this year.
“It is too cold. Keep yourselves warm but do not make any wild guesses. The new year will see a new harvest (nai fasal) and a new government that will be sensitive to the people’s need for health, education and jobs (padhaai, kamaai, dawaai, sunwai aur karvaayi ki sarkaar),” said the young leader when asked about Nitish Kumar. He added, “In the new year, my uncle (chacha) Nitish Kumar will be voted out. He has been in power for 20 years. Soil gets ruined if the same crop is sown for so long. So, it is time for the departure of Nitish ji and the NDA.”
The RJD has Congress on its side, but Lalu knows the strategic importance of having Nitish in its fold to take on the BJP. The run up to the assembly elections will see a lot of flexing of muscles in both the coalitions. So, perhaps Lalu was testing the waters with his open invitation to Nitish?