The Bihar Chief Minister has been very busy during the last few days, travelling to Lucknow, Delhi and Kolkata meeting various Opposition leaders. Nitish Kumar has realised that in order to give the BJP some sort of a credible fight in the 2024 elections, the Opposition needs to get its act together. However, there are cracks within. The Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has been busy trying to prop up a Non Congress-Non BJP front. In this, he is aided and abetted by Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav who see the Congress as much of a threat as the BJP at the state level. But, the canvas is larger than a string of assembly elections and regional aspirations have to be docked for any sort of a coalition to take place at the Central level. More to the point, no Opposition alliance is possible without the Congress as it is the only pan-Indian party in the Opposition.
Hence, Nitish Kumar has taken this initiative to reach out to all the Opposition parties. It is interesting that his tour de unity began with the Congress where he met Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. After that he called on Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav (but not Mayawati – as one is not quite sure which boat she will finally board). At the press conference in Lucknow, the Bihar Chief Minister made it amply clear that he is not harbouring any ambitions to be the Prime Minister.
Earlier, Kharge too had stated that the Congress was not keen on portraying any PM face. Hence, the Opposition is united on strategy – that the fight against Modi would not be individual-based but would be issue-based. They have realised (wisely) that given the PM’s credibility, it would be futile to wage a war against the cult of Modi. Better to take on the BJP on the government’s performance – or lack of it.
Interestingly, the Opposition also seems to have zeroed in on the one issue it thinks can work – which is politics of caste. Pitching Mandal against Mandir has been done before and admittedly these are the two planks on which most elections are fought in India. Hence, Nitish has been championing the cause of the caste census and now even Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav have picked this issue.
As a footnote, it would be important to note that Nitish Kumar is accompanied by his deputy Tejashwi Yadav during these coalition building courtesy calls. Tejashwi is Lalu Yadav’s heir apparent and one who has carved a niche for himself as a caste warrior and champion of the backwards. Also, the BJP has long been harping on the differences between Tejashwi and Nitish and hinting that Nitish would soon return to the BJP fold. Well the duo putting up a united appearance will nail that rumour as well.
So, there has been a flurry of activity within the Opposition camp with Nitish Kumar taking the lead. As he himself admitted, he is no JP (the socialist leader Jayprakash Narayan who led the Opposition movement against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the 70s)., but he is definitely offering himself as a sort of sutradhar to string the Opposition together. Not unlike the role played by Harkishen Singh Surjeet in UPA 1.