Patna, (Samajweekly) Amid the political crisis in Bihar, there is a buzz that whoever goes with the marriage party, Nitish Kumar becomes the groom.
Nitish Kumar has been proving it for the last 23 years as he has become the chief minister of Bihar 8 times with the help of the BJP and the RJD. His love-hate story with these two parties is unfurling once again as he is expected to leave the RJD and join hands with the BJP to take oath for the ninth time in Bihar.
Nitish Kumar took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the first time in 2000 with the help of the BJP but he resigned within one week after his government was reduced to a minority. At that time, Bihar and Jharkhand were one state and the NDA had 151 MLAs while the RJD led alliance had 159 MLAs in the 324-member Bihar assembly.
Nitish Kumar was again elected in 2005 with the help of the BJP and completed his tenure of 5 years. During that time, he announced a number of people oriented policies and received the name of ‘Sushashan Babu’ in Bihar. He got the benefit in the 2010 assembly election in Bihar when his party JD-U contested on 141 seats and won 115 seats. He became the chief minister of Bihar for the third time.
However, his relations with the BJP soured when the saffron brigade announced the name of Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. Nitish Kumar believes that he has a similar status as Narendra Modi has. Besides, he also thought that Narendra Modi was carrying the baggage of the Godhra riots of 2002. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Kumar’s party fared miserably and he resigned as the chief minister on moral grounds. He offered the post of chief minister to JItan Ram Manjhi in 2014 but forced him to resign within 9 months and became the chief minister for the fourth time.
In the 2015 assembly election, Nitish Kumar joined hands with the RJD and the Congress and defeated the BJP. The RJD won 80 seats while the JD-U bagged only 69 seats. Still, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav offered the CM’s post to Nitish Kumar and he took oath as Bihar’s chief minister for the 5th time.
Kumar broke the alliance with the RJD in 2017 Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav was chargesheeted in the IRCTC land-for-job case and Kumar formed the government with the help of the BJP. At that time the BJP had only 59 seats in the Bihar assembly. Kumar took oath as the CM for the sixth time.
Nitish Kumar contested the 2020 assembly election under the umbrella of the NDA with the BJP, HAM-S and VIP as the alliance partners. His party under-performed, getting just 43 seats. As Kumar is a shrewd and hard bargainer, he managed to become the chief minister for the 7th time.
He broke his alliance with the BJP in August 2022 and formed the government with the RJD. He took the oath for the 8th time as the chief minister of Bihar. At that time, Nitish Kumar blamed the BJP for the parting of ways as BJP national president JP Nadda had given a statement to uproot the regional parties.
Now, Nitish Kumar is almost ready to break the alliance with the RJD and form the government with the BJP in Bihar. He is expected to take oath for the ninth time as the CM on Sunday. Interestingly in the last 23 years, only five assembly elections have been held in Bihar but Nitish Kumar took the oath 8 times and one is on the cards on Sunday.
Bihar is crucial for the BJP keeping in view the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats and the BJP desperately wants to repeat its performance of 2019. The BJP had won 17 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and anything less than that may hurt the campaign of Narendra Modi and the BJP to again form the government at the Centre.
Bihar has three major parties — the RJD, the BJP and the JD-U — and when two parties join hands before an election, their chances are the maximum. It happened in the 2015 assembly election, the 2019 Lok Sabha election and again in the 2020 assembly election. Now, that the 2024 Lok Sabha election is around the corner, the combination of Nitish Kumar and PM Narendra Modi will dominate Bihar.
