Nitish Won't Let BJP Do A Shinde On Him

'JD-U wants to emerge as the single largest party in Bihar after the next assembly polls by contesting more seats than the BJP.'

The Janata Dal-United asserts that there will be no compromise on Nitish Kumar as leader of the National Democratic Aliance in Bihar and as the NDA's chief ministerial candidate in the 2025 assembly elections.

The JD-U also made it clear that Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister if the NDA returns to power in the assembly polls.

This stand assumes much political significance as it comes days after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah's reported statement that it had not been decided who will be the NDA's face in the Bihar assembly elections when he was asked if Nitish would be the chief ministerial candidate or if the BJP would adopt a strategy similar to Maharashtra where it changed the chief minister after the election outcome.

In Maharashtra, the BJP replaced incumbent chief minister Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena with Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP leader.

Shah's widely reported statement that 'we will sit together and decide' provoked unhappiness in JD-U circles where Nitish Kumar matters above all else.

"Hamare liye Nitish Kumar hi sab kucch hai (Nitish Kumar is everything to us)," says JD-U worker Shambhu Kumar, sipping hot tea on a cold Tuesday afternoon at a roadside tea stall near the party's state office on busy Bir Chand Patel Marg in the heart of Patna.

His view is loudly echoed by a group of party leaders and workers standing nearby to savour the winter sun amid a chilly wind.

Though the Bihar assembly election is months away, a race has already commenced for supremacy between the BJP and JD-U, the main constituents of the NDA in the state.

Senior JD-U leaders and ministers Ratnesh Sada and Sunil Kumar assert that "Nitish Kumar wil be the NDA face and the next chief minister."

"The NDA will have to go to the polls next year under Nitish Kumar's leadership and he will become the next chief minister," says Sada, a Dalit leader.

"Nitish Kumar is the CM and he will be the next CM, no one else. It is not possible that any other leader will become CM," says Sada. "In Bihar only Nitish Kumar's formula works."

"There is no confusion and doubt about who will lead NDA in the 2025 polls," says Sunil Kumar, an IPS officer turned politician who is considered close to Nitish Kumar. "Nitish Kumar will lead the NDA in the polls and Nitish Kumar will be the chief ministerial face."

"Whatever others have been talking hardly matter to us because our decision is clear that Nitish Kumar is the leader and the NDA's face in Bihar," adds Sunil Kumar.

Till Monday, December 16, 2024, the JD-U's stand over Shah's statement was a muted one before senior JD-U leader and former minister Neeraj Kumar said Shah's silence meant tactit consent on the issue.

On Tuesday another senior JD-U leader and Bihar Minister Sharwan Kumar stated that the party is 100 percent confident it would contest the assembly polls under Nitish Kumar's leadership.

Political watchers in Patna point out that JD-U leaders have come out to sent a political message to its ally the BJP following Shah's statement that it will not bow down like parties in states elsewhere have done.

Till last week most of the Bihar's senior BJP leaders including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha repeatedly said that the NDA would contest the assembly election under Nitish Kumar's leadership.

After Shah's remark that the BJP parliamentaty board would decide who the NDA's chief ministerial candidate would be, these leaders have gone silent on the issue.

Sources within the BJP in Patna admit that the party would like to form a government in Bihar on its own with one of its leaders as chief minister.

When the BJP was in Opposition in the state, BJP leaders repeatedly announced that the party would form its own government in 2025.

A senior BJP leader and former MLA told this correspondent that a strong lobby in the party wants to replace Nitish Kumar as chief minister by a strong party leader.

"The BJP is the single largest party in the state assembly, it has a wide social support base and network but still lacks a face to lead and win polls," says the BJP leader, speaking on condition that he would not be identified by name for this report.

"Since 2005 the BJP has been using Nitish Kumar to defeat the RJD in assembly and Lok Sabha polls. The alliance with Nitish Kumar is a political compulsion as the party is depend on him to keep the RJD out of power."

The RJD is the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a party founded by Lalu Prasad Yadav and now led by his younger son Tejashwi Yadav.

There are several aspirants in the BJP who want to lead the NDA, adds the BJP leader, but not dares to say it openly.

One thing is clear: As of now Nitish Kumar is comfortable within the NDA and there is no possibility of his realigning with the Rashtriya Janata Dal for the assembly polls.

Soon after Nitish Kumar realigned with the BJP on January 28, 2024, the JD-U launched a campaign projecting him as the next NDA chief minister.

JD-U leaders say Nitish Kumar has told the BJP leadership in Delhi that the JD-U will contest not less than 120 of the 243 seats in the 2025 assembly polls and the remaining 133 seats is to be divided between the BJP and its other allies in Bihar.

"The JD-U wants to emerge as the single largest party after the next assembly polls by contesting more number of seats than the BJP," says a JD-U leader.

In the 2020 assembly polls, the JD-U's tally had come down to 43 while the BJP won 74 seats.

What haunts BJP leaders in Patna is Nitish Kumar's fickle political nature. After he dumped the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan and rejoined hands with the BJP to form an NDA government in Bihar JD-U leaders close to him failed to anticipate his political moves. It has been proven half a dozen times since 2010.

In 2015, he joined hands with the RJD and the Congress, winning the state assembly elections and forming the Mahagathbandan government.

In 2017, he dumped the Mahagathbandan, rejoined the NDA and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2020 assembly polls with the BJP.

In 2022, he dumped the BJP and joined hands with the RJD again, only to return to the NDA in January 2024.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com