Bihar politicos rack their brains on how well Nitish will fit Prez role
The choppy political waters of Bihar are roiled, once again, over talks of its longest-serving Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s deservingness for the post of the country’s President.
Rumours, which had subsided a few months ago after Kumar’s categorical assertion that he intended to remain in the state and serve its people, have resurfaced after the Election Commission announced Presidential polls earlier this week.
Only an official announcement of candidates, including by the NDA of which the Bihar chief minister’s JD(U) is a part, may put an end to the current round of frantic speculations. Meanwhile, the RJD, founded and headed by the JD(U) leader’s arch-rival Lalu Prasad, has found in the talks of “Rashtrapati Nitish Kumar” some ammunition to target the chief minister for his past acts of alleged political transgression.
“We had called Nitish Kumar Prime Minister material when we ran the government in the state in alliance with his party. But he never cared to abide by coalition dharma. He chose to support the then Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind’s candidature in the last Presidential elections even though he was not a part of the NDA,” said RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari. “Nitish Kumar had defended his action by speciously linking it to the issue of Bihari pride. The Congress-led UPA had fielded Meira Kumar, whom we supported and who was actually a Bihari and had been elected to the Lok Sabha from the state,” Tiwari pointed out.
Tiwari pointed towards the sharp decline in JD(U)’s strength in the state assembly, which has been blamed on the rebellion of Chirag Paswan in the 2020 assembly polls, when he was believed to be enjoying BJP’s tacit support.
“The BJP wants Nitish Kumar to be dethroned in disgrace. Would it tolerate him as President or even Vice President,” remarked Tiwari, in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the old but checkered ties of the JD(U) with the saffron party which became more pronounced with the ascendance of Narendra Modi.