Who is more loyal to Modi? Nitish or Chirag?

Bihar Elections 2020

By DK Sinha

Patna: Loyalty has never been considered a great virtue in politics. But interestingly, 37-year-old Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan is trying to add a new narrative to Bihar election by trumpeting the issue of loyalty. So, he wants to leave one more question with voters- who is more loyal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi – he himself or Nitish Kumar, chief minister and Janata Dal (United) president. Whether it could be a deciding factor in the election, only time will tell but it is also true the PM has a great following in Bihar and Nitish’s image vis-a-vis Narendra Modi has apparently suffered a dent in view of anti-incumbency factor working against him.

Chirag’s only target is Nitish Kumar, attacking him on various issues but also on his shifting political loyalties for allegedly sticking to power. Even in his wildest dreams, Nitish had not thought of his political somersaults, becoming a nemesis for him one day.

But after 15 years of his ‘sushasan‘, premised largely on the state’s fast economic growth as claimed by the present dispensation, Nitish is facing the challenge from Chirag on this very issue. Chirag is questioning Nitish’s performance by arguing Bihar’s rural and basic infrastructure improved due to Narendra Modi government’s programmes. It must be very irritating for Nitish when he had once won laurels for bringing development to a backward state like Bihar. No politician would like such an irritant at the fag end of his career.

Chirag has virtually launched a multi-pronged attack on Nitish but he is repeatedly trying to hurt him most by contending that he (Nitish) has no faith in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Chirag’s father Ram Vilas Paswan, who died recently, had also given damn care to loyalty to keep himself politically strong. So, Chirag with an intention to blunt the edge of this very fact, is claiming his uncompromising loyalty towards Prime Minister Modi instead of going gung-ho towards BJP. He even was critical of senior BJP leaders íncluding Prakash Javadekar when they demeaned his party by calling it ‘vote katwa‘. Chirag contended that these statements were made by BJP leaders at the behest of Nitish. It leaves little doubt that Chirag, still in formative years of his politics, would have taken such a huge risk without the support of BJP.

Chirag could conveniently claim that his loyalty towards Narendra Modi is stronger as Nitish Kumar has fumbled on various occasions. Nitish had broken his ties with BJP when Narendra Modi was declared chief ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha election and even had snatched dinner dishes from BJP leaders and more recently Bihar assembly had passed resolution against The National Register of Citizens (NRC) under his tutelage.

Now, Nitish must be anxiously waiting for Prime Minister to make clear that he would be chief minister even if his party, JD (U) gets fewer number of seats than BJP and also ratifies the statement of senior BJP leaders calling Chirag ‘vote katwa’ when he (Modi) addresses a dozen rallies in Bihar to campaign for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the October-November election. As per the schedule, the PM will address three rallies a day and Nitish will share the stage with him in at least one of them.

The Prime Minister’s first rally will be held in Sasaram on October 23, next Friday. He will also visit Gaya and Bhagalpur the same day. His last will be on November 3 in Araria.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who is overseeing the party’s Bihar campaign, said on October 28 (the first day of voting), PM Modi would visit Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna.

This is the first time that PM Modi is seeking votes for Nitish Kumar. Even when the alliance was in place, Nitish never allowed Modi to campaign in Bihar in the 2005 and 2010 elections, apprehending that it would annoy Muslim voters.