Though Nitish Kumar repeatedly spoke of “working towards Opposition unity” to unseat the BJP at the Centre, he told reporters that he is “not a contender for anything”. When asked if he wants to be PM candidate, he said, “The question to ask is, if the person who came in 2014 will win in 2024.”
Elections in Bihar are due now only in 2025, a year after the Lok Sabha contest. This means that Nitish is likely to be still in the chair in 2024. With the Congress weakened, the Opposition not yet united, and another regional leader with national ambitions — Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee has had to halt her march after corruption charges against her party colleagues, it only helps his case. Nitish Kumar’s new deputy, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, has said that he is “the most experienced chief minister in India right now”.
Analysts have for years floated the theory that Nitish Kumar could be Opposition candidate against PM Modi, if the Congress plays a non-leading role. But that reads shallow as he floats in and out of alliances. Till yesterday, he was chief minister with BJP support and now he is back with the RJD of old pal Lalu Yadav.
The first version of the JDU-RJD-Congress tie-up, called the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ or Grand Alliance, won power in 2015. Nitish Kumar had broken up with the BJP two years before that as he had problems with Narendra Modi’s past — particularly the 2002 Gujarat riots — and left the NDA after he became the PM face.
But he soon made up with PM Modi’s party in 2017, left the Grand Alliance and took a fresh oath. He remained with the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections; and then they together won the 2020 Bihar polls.
Today he said he did not want to be Chief Minister after the 2020 win with the BJP. “Ask people in the party (JDU), what they have been reduced too. I did not want to become CM… but I was put under pressure. Then you see what happened. I have not even spoken to you (journalists) in two months.”
In 2015, Nitish Kumar’s JDU had won 71 seats — part of the Grand Alliance’s 170 — in a House of 243. The RJD was the largest party with 80, but he became chief minister as leader of the pact. At present, the JDU has 45 seats. The BJP, which has 77, made him chief minister in 2020 despite his lower numbers — but with two deputies from the BJP stable.
On his fate after yet another flip, Nitish Kumar today said, “Whether I will stay or not… let people say what they have to say.” After staking claim yesterday, he said he “never allowed corruption” and “we want brotherhood in society”. Standing next to him, Tejashwi Yadav accused the BJP of dividing people along communal lines: “We are socialists. All of us want the BJP’s agenda shouldn’t be implemented in Bihar.”
