By Our Special Correspondent
Nitish Kumar, once seen as a potential rival to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, broke ranks with the BJP-led NDA coalition Tuesday to stake claim as head of the rival ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) to be chief minister of Bihar for the eighth time.
Kumar, 71, who earlier in the day submitted his resignation as the chief minister heading the NDA coalition, said he submitted a list of 164 MLAs to Governor Phagu Chauhan who will decide when the oath-taking can take place.
Besides upsetting political calculations, the move is seen as significant as it diminishes the clout of the BJP in a key state in the Hindi-speaking heartland from where most of its legislators come ahead of the 2024 general elections, which pundits expect it to otherwise win.
Kumar told newspersons outside the Raj Bhavan, “It was decided at the party meeting that we quit the NDA. I have, therefore, resigned as the NDA’s Chief Minister”.
The decision they took was to quit the NDA and join hands with the Mahagathbandhan which it had spurned five years back in 2017.
The CM is understood to have told party legislators and MPs that he had been driven against the wall by the BJP which tried to weaken his JD (U), first by propping up Chirag Paswan’s rebellion and later through the party’s former national president RCP Singh.
Singh was made a cabinet minister at the Centre without Kumar’s explicit agreement. Consequently, when his term as a Rajya Sabha member ended, the JD (U) refused to give him another term as an MP, thus ending his stint as cabinet minister as well.
The BJP on Tuesday reacted angrily, accusing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of “insulting and betraying” people’s mandate while blaming his prime ministerial ambition for the JD(U)’s decision to walk out of the NDA.
The party’s leaders also threw the jibe “Paltu Ram” (one who keeps changing sides), first used by Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav for Kumar, at the Janata Dal (United) leader and rejected claims that their party had tried undermining him.
“Despite having fewer seats, we made him (Kumar) chief minister. He has deceived the people twice. He is suffering from arrogance,” Ashwini Choubey, BJP‘s central minister said.
Asked about Kumar’s tie-up with the RJD, Choubey said, “Vinash kale vipreet buddhi” (when doom approaches, one loses wisdom).
Nitish Kumar had deserted the NDA for the first time in 2013 after Narendra Modi became the coalition’s Prime Ministerial candidate and then again ditched his coalition with the RJD-Congress combine in 2017 to walk back into the NDA camp.
“Nitish’s move today is a new chapter in one form of federalization of politics (where regional parties are taking control of states), while Maharashtra where BJP formed a coalition government (earlier this year after the Shiv Sena broke up) is one form of centralization of politics,” said Ranabir Samaddar, well-known political scientist and former professor of Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies.
The question of whether Kumar’s startling political moves on Tuesday will have repercussions on national politics and whether the opposition will try to build him up as a rival to Modi is of course a question which remains up in the air, to be answered in the future. PTI
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