CM Nitish Kumar concedes defeat to PM Modi, loses face and credibility

The Bihar Chief Minister has formed a new government with, friend-turned-foe-turned-friend, BJP.

Noted historian and political commentator, Ramachandra Guha recently said, "There is a genuine leader in India. That is Nitish Kumar. He is a leader without a party, the Congress is a party without a leader. If Congress gives him a chance to lead the UPA, it might have a future."

Well, it is safe to assume that this won't be happening anymore. As even if Bihar Chief Minister might want to take another U-turn in his political life and realign with those in the Opposition now, the chances of them taking him back are dim at best.

The question of what he will decide to do and go with had been up in the air ever since corruption allegations against various members of the RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family were recently made and the investigative agencies swooped in.

His latest decision to break his party, JD (U)'s alliance with RJD in Bihar and rekindle old ties with BJP, to form the government in the state barely a day after resigning has left most others in shock.

Yet, except for the timing and quick feet shown by both Kumar and the BJP, even if talks between the two were on for a while, the reality of his past political breakups and patch ups should make the latest step by him not the least bit surprising.

Instead what should be surprising is his lack of political ambition to take on the BJP at the national stage and no attempt by him to be placed at the helm of the opposition, and agreeing to play second fiddle to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ambition and political image decide Nitish's decisions

The decision shows he seems content to stick with Bihar and get a little slice of the pie in the union government. By taking the excuse of conscience and trying to play out that he would not tolerate corruption, he has tried his best to stay in power for as long as possible. Fear that he might lose out in the next elections with the BJP growing in strength in the state, and Kumar having no large fixed voter base like Yadav, seems to be the political arithmetic behind the deal.

The two things that seem to have decided his chosen course of action would be Nitish's attempt to keep his image of being a leader who represents good and corruption-free governance, and his political ambition for the rest of his career.

Though this might seem like cynical thinking, a look at his past political manoeuvring seems to indicate it to be very likely.This is not the first time that Nitish has had to take such a crucial decision on choosing who to pick or keep as an ally, based on these factors.

The first of the two times he broke ranks and went his separate ways came in the early 90's when he decided to part ways with Yadav, who was an extremely powerful leader at the time. This led him to fall out of the state's political limelight, and it took him more than a decade before he could come back with full force and become the face of Bihar.

The second was before 2014 general elections when his party broke its alliance with BJP when it became clear the then Gujarat Chief Minister and now Prime Minister, Modi, would lead NDA in the elections.

In between the two, he chose to break away with his political mentor, former defence minister George Fernandes, and ally with the current president of JD (U), Sharad Yadav, even though Kumar was first brought in by former Prime Minister V P Singh to counter the like of Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan.

State of the Opposition just made his decision easier

While Guha, political pundits and others were hoping for a united front of the opposition parties to take on Modi and his party, with someone like Nitish to lead it, by striking a deal with Modi and taking BJP's support in the state and returning the favor at the centre, he has clearly showed that he feels that leading the opposition would have been a herculean task with little chances of success.

The fact that the opposition is a divided house is no secret in Indian politics. And if there were still some who had any doubts left about it, they would have lost them given the cross voting that it suffered in the election for the President of India.

Even the choice of candidate, Meira Kumar, seems to have added to the irritation of leaders such as Nitish, who came out in the open about the dismal display of selecting the nominee, in the time taken for it and the name selected.

In fact, his decision to break from the joint opposition decision to back Meira Kumar could either be seen as the first clue of his future plans or the last straw in his patience with the group.

Adding to this that not only is the Congress, which is supposedly leading the the opposition, not able to get the leadership issue in the party sorted, there was no clear indication by the Grand Old Party of India that it would let a regional leader, no matter how competent, lead the charge against the BJP-led NDA and Modi.

The fact that allegations against his alliance partner's Yadav's were bound to hit his image of a deliverer of good and clean governance, seems to have nudged him enough to link up with the BJP even further.

Together these seem to have made up Nitish's mind for him that there was little to gain in sticking with an option of taking the chance of possibly being in charge of divided house against a formidable opponent like Modi, who is unlikely to concede any ground to anyone anytime soon.

Modi has the last laugh

Nitish's decision to break from the NDA before the 2014 elections was mostly based on the rise of Modi. At that time the conscience, though not mentioned, had told him to go against the communal forces.

This even though he had defended the Chief Ministership of Modi following the 2002 Gujarat riots, and not given up his ministry as a protest when part of the NDA government in power at the centre then.

For Modi, except for the small state of Delhi, the biggest upset so far in terms of elections in various states during his tenure as Prime Minister, has been the defeat dealt out to the NDA in Bihar in 2015.

This along with the challenge of once friend turned foe, and a loss to him, would not have gone down well with Modi. To add to this, Bihar Chief Minister being talked about as a possible opponent to him would have just added salt to his wounds.

But with one single swoop, Modi and his trusted lieutenant, BJP President, Amit Shah, seem to have not only healed any damages suffered earlier but also inflicted it on the entire opposition and Nitish too.

As not only has opposition unity been dealt a strong and almost fatal blow for 2019, but also the only character in this latest drama to have come out with a loss of face, even though he has retained power, is the Bihar Chief minister. As he seems to have taken the adage, In politics there are no permanent friends or foes, a bit too far.

And the tag of unreliability that will be marked on him from now on would mean that he has have burnt all bridges that he had built so far and left him with no other option but to stick with Modi, no matter how he is treated.

This would be seen by the Modi-Shah duo as just reward for the troubles they have suffered at the hands of Nitish Kumar.

OneIndia News