Golghar, Patna
Perspective
By DK Sinha
Patna: Bihar enters new year 2021 with a mixed bag of optimism and political uncertainty. The optimism is mainly driven by the installation of a new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, who is likely to leave a lasting imprint with special focus on development as he starts possibly his last stint as chief minister of the state. But at the same time, political uncertainty stares at the state as the relationship between his party, Janata Dal (United), and his NDA ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is under strain.
The state had itself faced a multitude of challenges and problems throughout 2020, starting from Coronavirus pandemic, lockdown-induced economic slowdown and migrants’ crisis, flood, nascent NDA government stressed from within and rising crime graph.
But the most remarkable happening has been the jolt to chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose position in the state politics as numero uno was shaken, apparently forever. More ominously for Nitish, the plot against him was set by none other than his own ally, the BJP. But the biggest gainer in the state politics, particularly post-election was the Rashtriya Janata Dal scion and Lalu Prasad’s son, 31-year old Tejashwi Yadav, who managed to make the electoral battle a close one. Another young politician, 37-year old Chirag Paswan who rebelled against Nitish before the election, helped Tejashwi to shine in the state’s political horizon under the media glare. The RJD ultimately emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats while BJP was second with 74 seats.
Nitish’s JD (U) had to contend with just 39 seats as two other allies of NDA – Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) – bagged four seats each. NDA finished with 125 seats against Grand Alliance’s 110. Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) got only one seat even as it cut into votes of JD (U) candidates in more than 40 seats. Everybody concluded, perhaps rightly so, that the BJP masterminded the LJP’s plan to field candidates on all seats where JD (U) was in fray with an objective to undersize its ally. The BJP succeeded in its ostensible plan but dealt another severe blow to JD (U) post election, this time in Arunachal Pradesh. Six of seven JD (U) MLAs joined BJP in the north eastern state, promoting senior JD (U) leader to call it an act, which was against the coalition dharma.
Nitish Kumar reiterated in his party’s national meet that he was not inclined to accept the post of chief minister but he did it on the persuasion of the BJP. A claim, which was also ratified by former deputy chief minister and one of Nitish’s closest colleagues in the BJP, Sushil Kumar Modi, now a Rajya Sabha member.
RJD leader and former minister Shyam Rajak also created a political storm when he claimed that 17 JD (U) MLAs were ready to switch over to his party but they were waiting for more JD (U) MLAs to join the board to escape any action under the anti-defection law. Nitish refuted the claim by dismissing it as baseless and unfounded.
The cabinet expansion could also not take place due to uneasiness between the BJP and the JD (U) even as the former is also sulking that major departments like home and education have not been allocated to it.
There is, though, seemingly no immediate threat to Nitish government as the saffron party’s first priority is West Bengal, where it is pitted against a formidable enemy, Mamta Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress. But if it really gets very tough for Nitish and he senses that his public image is under risk if he continues relationship with the BJP, he could take any risk. Some even say that he could even force mid-term poll. But it is certain 2021 would be more intense for Bihar politically.
