What Trump did to Maduro, Modi has done to Nitish Kumar: Jairam Ramesh

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday attacked the BJP over Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's decision to move to the Rajya Sabha, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done to Kumar what former US President Donald Trump did to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

His remarks came a day after Nitish Kumar, the long‑serving chief minister of Bihar, filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections — a move that effectively draws the curtain on his current tenure in the state’s top executive post and thrusts Bihar politics into fresh uncertainty.

Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, Ramesh said, "What Trump did to Maduro, Modi ji has done to Nitish Kumar. This is a coup."

The US military had seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their Caracas home on 3 January in a stunning operation that landed them in New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

Ramesh, speaking to the press and in posts on social media, invoked dramatic imagery and international analogies to underscore his criticism. In his telling, the transition — which paves the way for a fresh government in Patna, widely expected to be led by the BJP — amounts to a betrayal of voters who returned Kumar to power just months ago following the assembly polls. “A leadership coup and regime change orchestrated by G2 has taken place,” he asserted, describing the development as “a huge betrayal of the people’s mandate.”

Critics across the opposition spectrum have echoed Ramesh’s framing, questioning the suddenness of Kumar’s decision and decrying what they portray as political expediency. Some compared it to a form of “political abduction” or manipulation, suggesting that the BJP’s dominant partner in the National Democratic Alliance exerted pressure to engineer the leadership change.

Kumar, a veteran statesman who has helmed Bihar for over two decades across multiple terms, posted his intentions on X, expressing gratitude to the electorate and pledging continued service to the state even as he transitions to the Upper House. “For more than two decades, you have consistently placed your trust and support in me,” he wrote, affirming his commitment to guiding the new government and promoting Bihar’s development.

But Ramesh, invoking sharper rhetoric, said the people of Bihar had voted for Kumar specifically as their chief minister — not for a BJP‑led leadership or a departure from their electoral choice. “This is a betrayal of the mandate,” he said, suggesting that the circumstances echo broader patterns of political rearrangements across states.

The political tremors of Kumar’s decision were visible on the ground as well. Supporters of Kumar’s own party, the Janata Dal (United), expressed shock, with some refusing to believe the move and even protesting outside party offices in Patna.

For the Congress, which has sparingly few seats in the Bihar Assembly, the episode has become a rallying point to criticise what it views as opportunistic realignments that undermine voters’ trust and dilute the voice of coalition partners. Ramesh warned that if such models of political change go unchecked, similar episodes could unfold elsewhere, reshaping the larger political landscape.

As Kumar’s Rajya Sabha nomination signals both an end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter in Bihar’s politics, the broader partisan battlelines have become clearer — with opposition leaders framing the move as a profound betrayal of democratic will, and the ruling alliance projecting it as a strategic and consensual transition of power.

With PTI inputs