Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar returns with a vengeance whenever political pundits tend to write him off.
It happened during the last Lok Sabha election too but he proved his political mettle, silencing his detractors. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Nitish had touched Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s feet after his “Char Hazaar se bhi zyada” seats for NDA goof up at a public meeting in Nawada. Some more goof up followed, but he played a major role in the formation of NDA government at the center as he had 12 MPs in his kitty. His party, JD (U), had contested 16 seats, recording a better strike than BJP’s. BJP had also won 12 seats but it fielded candidates on 17 seats. Now, the Narendra Modi government’s stability very much depends on JD (U)’s support as the INDIA bloc restricted BJP to 240 seats in the last parliamentary election. In such a case, BJP cannot afford to annoy Nitish at any stage.
There are instances galore since LS polls when Nitish’s bloomers made more national headlines than his speeches at the public places. His arguably falling health even gave credence to growing perception that BJP will replace him with his own man, even if he is made chief minister for the initial period in case NDA musters majority in the state polls.
But Nitish, known for his political acumen, does not shy away from taking a tough stand when the situation demands. He also gave allies a strong signal to his allies -particularly BJP and LJP (RV) - that he cannot be taken for granted.
JD (U) had objected to seats from its quota being allocated to union minister Chirag Paswan’s party, LJP (RV), and refused to part with Sonbarsa, Rajgir, Ekma, and Morwa despite several rounds of talks. A defiant JD(U) has since given poll symbols to its candidates in these constituencies
Nitish`s importance in BJP`s scheme of things can be understood by Union Home Minister and BJP`s strategist Amit Shah planning to meet Nitish at the latter`s official residence in Patna on Friday.
