Is Bihar going to witness a big political turmoil? This question has taken the centre stage after reports about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar facing serious challenges from within the party and from outsiders as well. It is said that joining hands with NDA is the only option left for Nitish if he wants to save his post and his party. However, the Bihar CM is claiming that everything is fine in the party. He says that the organisation and MLAs are well under his control.
Nothing significant is going to happen in the National Executive of the JD(U) to be held here on Friday. Nitish will try to take back the party’s command from Lalan Singh. It is New Year only when Nitish will open his cards.
The JD(U) leaders may have claimed that all is well, but reports are that attempts are underway to break the party. Attempts are being made to merge a big faction of JDU with RJD so that Tejashwi Yadav could be made CM. With this being the case, the role of Lalan Singh came under suspicion. Nitish also realised that he is getting into what could lead to a big crisis.
The situation worsened after the meeting of the I.N.D.I.A alliance. Nitish was expecting that he would be announced convenor of the alliance and then the PM face of the opposition bloc.
But nothing like this happened.
TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee proposed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as prime ministerial candidate of the alliance which upset Nitish’s plan. As a result, Nitish is facing exactly the same situation that arose in 2017. In 2015, Nitish had left NDA and formed a Grand Alliance with RJD and Congress which later formed the government in Bihar. Nitish was also trying to ensure that he is projected PM face ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
But Congress insisted on Rahul Gandhi as PM face. After this, Nitish severed ties with the grand alliance and joined back the NDA. He accepted the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His party however got less seats than expected in 2020 Assembly elections in Bihar. He was under the impression that BJP ensured defeat of JDU candidates. He again switched over to alliance with RJD and Congress and formed a government.
This time Nitish took initiative to launch an alliance of the opposition parties against the NDA. In the process, Nitish tried to project himself as the face of this alliance. But he was not given importance when the alliance was named. He was also not given the post of convenor. He was isolated in the opposition alliance. Now his party is said to be in crisis. BJP leaders started saying that the JDU is merging with the RJD.
There are reports that Nitish once again reached out to Upendra Kushwaha who left the JDU long ago. Nitish is exploring ways to join NDA with the help of Kushwaha. The scene on Nitish next course of action will be clear after December 29. Understandably, there will be a major political development in Bihar after Makar Sankranti.
