Who and what after Nitish - Bihar at cross roads

With the somewhat unceremonious exit of Nitish Kumar from the Bihar political scene and mounting uncertainty over his successor, Bihar finds itself at the cross roads. At stake also is the future of JD(U), which more than a political party functioned like a political cocktail of opportunistic practitioners of both brands of politics - Mandal as well as Kamandal. Now that the helmsman himself struggling to stay afloat, the rats of the ship may manage shelter elsewhere thereby throwing the party into the dustbin of history.

And to a great extent, Nitish himself is to blame for the sorry state of affairs as he did not allow even shrubs to grow under his awesome shadow. As Nitish leaves behind extra large boots, finding someone to walk into his shoes is easier said than done.

Coming to the succession issue first - the only thing certain in this all pervading uncertainty is that somebody from the BJP will be the next CM of Bihar. Nearly half a dozen names and a likely dark horse make the situation really complicated. The names doing the round include Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha, the two deputies of the outgoing CM. Other names include party state President Dilip Jaiswal, Health Minister Mangal Pande and MLAs Sanjiv Chaurasia and Janak Ram.

Political analysts believe that the UP politics may play a major role in the selection of Bihar CM. The two BIMARU states have so much in common. If the BJP leadership decides to ‘dispose off’ Yogi Adityanath before the 2027 elections, Bihar may get a Thakur CM and former Union minister Rudra Pratap Rudy is tailor made for that role. Going by the track record of the BJP leadership, any of its 89 MLAs and 22 MLCs can hope for 1, Anne Marg tenancy.

So far as JD(U) is concerned, it may somehow survive as a loose outfit till the next elections. Come election time, the JD(U) horses will sneak into new stables of either the BJP or RJD with some of them even moving to Congress and LJP camps.

Nitish’s son Nishant, on account of well known parental discord had a very troubled childhood and this troubled childhood defines his persona and as such he can not old the party together. Most of the time he had been a stranger in his own home.

Explaining Nitish Kumar’s gradual political rise and steep fall is not that easy. Till a few years back, Nitish was being seen as PM material and now he finds himself in the political shelter home called Rajya Sabha. It may be sabha (meeting venue) but certainly not Rajya (state).

It was late Sushil Modi, who, for the first time discovered/invented/sniffed/stuffed PM material in his friend cum boss and Modi Junior had to pay a very heavy price for it as he was unceremoniously dumped. Sushil Modi can rightly be regarded as the architect of BJP in a caste ridden state like Bihar.

Though suave as a person, political opportunism has been the hall mark of Nitish’s politics and he has been ruthless towards his benefactors be it Lalu, George or Sharad not necessarily in that order. People who portray Nitish as a principled politician tend to forget the year 2000 episode when he stooped too low by visiting Beur jail to solicit the blessings of dreaded criminals to get the CM chair. That Nitish, at that time stooped but could not conquer is another story.

Even after that he continued to promote and patronise unsavoury characters like Anant Singh, Sunil Pandey, Butan Singh and Anand Mohan to name only a few.

Helped by a friendly media, Nitish has been portrayed as a symbol of financial integrity. True, Nitish’s personal honesty has never been questioned, not even by his detractors.

But for a politician of his stature, personal honesty stands in sharp contrast to the ill gotten money amassed by people close to him, be it ministers or bureaucrats. He is certainly not naive enough to be unaware of the scandals in which several people close to him were not only involved but in some cases master minded the murky deals. Besides his own persona, a man is also known by his associates and on this point he compares favourably to the likes of Lalu and Sharad Pawar.

You can never find Nitish in fault. He had the art of camouflaging his opportunistic somersaults in terms of principle. He would embrace communal elements on the principle of development and the corrupt ones on the principle of social justice with equal ease.

All this does not mean that Nitish would be remembered by history for all the wrong reasons. To a great extent his merits outweigh his shortcomings both as a person and as a politician. Nitish is the best thing that happened to Bihar. He restored a semblance of order in an otherwise ungovernable Bihar. His contribution to rural development and women empowerment is enough to outdo his known shortcomings.

Like many other contemporary politicians including the bigger ones, Nitish did not practice the hit and run approach to development. He had his own limitations, no doubt. But he followed his pet schemes with sincerity and devotion.

When it came to political culling, Nitish never differentiated between friend and foe. May be he did not have any friend. He did not cultivate friendship. He was not alone in taking servility as a trait of friendship. He is essentially a loner and that may be his undoing. Like most of us Nitish too is a narcissist and he can not be faulted for that.

Every good player knows when to hang the boot but Nitish refused to quit the field despite scoring so many self goals and that is his undoing.

Nitish undoubtedly deserved a better exit. But he is himself to blame for his self inflicted injuries. The best time for him to call it a day was in 2020 when his party’s performance was miserable. At that time, at least he pretended to call the innings. In 2024, Nitish further degraded himself by agreeing to actually play twelfth man in the garb of captain.