Why ‘Bihari’ Nitish once again allied with ‘Bahari’ Modi

AWAY FROM PUBLIC STATEMENTS, NITISH REALISED HIS FLING WITH RJD AND REST OF ANTIBJP PARTIES WAS NOT GOING ANYWHERE

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to dump the grand alliance and waltz back into the BJP’s eager arms may have come as a surprise but some hard-nosed political calculations have gone into his decision.

On the face of it, Nitish was uncomfortable with corruption charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his deputy chief minister son Tejashwi Yadav, and other family members. Nitish stood for probity in public life, while the senior alliance partner was not even willing to explain the accusations of corruption, JD (U) said.

Away from these public statements, Nitish realised his fling with RJD and rest of the anti-BJP parties was not going anywhere.

Impressed with his skills that saw opposition Janata Dal stitch together a ruling coalition in Bihar in 1990s, Prasad had called Nitish Chanakya, the Indian statesman and philosopher celebrated for his political acumen.

It was the Chanakya in Nitish that called for a joint opposition to take on Narendra Modi and his BJP in the 2019 national election.

He was best placed to say so. It was he who had withstood the Modi wave to humiliate the BJP in the state election a year after the saffron party clinched a huge win in the national election.

But his efforts met with resistance and Nitish was humiliated, his loyalists say. UP is a case in point, they argue. Ahead of the state election earlier this year, Prasad managed to convince the ruling Samajwadi Party to keep Nitish out of the equation.

The Congress and SP tied up. The JD(U) was not offered a single seat in the 403-member assembly. Nitish was in favour of roping in Mayawati’s BSP to broad-base the alliance but found no takers.

Though his efforts failed in UP, Nitish was still the best person to take on Modi, as a majority of opposition leaders battled corruption charges, something BJP would have made the most of.

Nitish also realised that while Prasad was a partner in Bihar, he was working overtime to ensure JD (U) or he didn’t get a larger play in national politics.

That he had doubts about the opposition coming together became obvious when he broke ranks to back NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Govind. “The opposition cannot be reactive but must have a substantive policy to fight NDA,” Nitish said when the Congress and RJD questioned his decision.

Things were not too smooth with the Congress as well, which accused Nitish of changing stance over his support to Kovind. The CBI raids against Prasad and his family offered him a perfect opportunity to end the coalition, which was fraying.

JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok said RJD was hampering governance. “We were very uncomfortable. Development was at a standstill. The RJD was stonewalling JD(U)’s attempts to move forward, carry on development works and act against crime and corruption,” Alok said. “We were not comfortable with the RJD as we were with the BJP in 2005.” Nitish said as much. “The situation was choking us. The simple fact that the government’s policy to be transparent, clean and pursuit of zero tolerance for corruption was not acceptable to the RJD,” he said hours after resigning.

“I had never asked for Tejashwi’s resignation, only an explanation in public domain. Had the RJD accepted and stepped aside and not shown the intransigence, the grand alliance would have survived.”

The Nitish-BJP alliance, from 2005-2013, was by all accounts a success. Bihar made steady progress, crime was down, and women and Dalits benefitted from emphasis on governance. But the reverse happened after the tie-up with RJD, JD (U) leaders say. All gains were squandered. Kumar’s “ghar wapsi” will compromise his support among minorities and make it difficult for him to explain his dalliance with Prasad and BJP but if he manages to put Bihar back on growth path, he will have a credible explanation for switching sides, feels the JD(U).

Back as his deputy, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, “We will re-script the Bihar’s development post-2005 to emerge stronger. Of that, there is no doubt.”