Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday regained reins of the Janata Dal United, getting confidant Lalan Singh to step down, and made a barely-veiled pitch for spearheading INDIA.
A political resolution adopted at the JDU national executive described Nitish as the “architect” of the INDIA combine, highlighted his leadership abilities and went ahead to urge “bigger parties” (the Congress) to show “a big heart”. Few in JDU leadership ranks were confused about their leader’s messaging — he wants to lead the Opposition bloc in the battle for 2024.
“Today the people of the country are watching the I.N.D.I.A. alliance with keen eyes. The National Executive and National Council of JDU believe that the bigger parties in the alliance have more responsibility. To make this grand alliance successful, they will have to show a big heart. If a leader is to be given responsibility according to his experience and working capacity, he will have to be generous in doing so. We will have to forget our small differences and show rock-solid unity,” the resolution said, hailing Nitish as “the hope of the backwards, extremely backwards, deprived sections, minorities and crores of unemployed youths”. It proceeded to state: “The BJP is rattled as the INDIA bloc has a leader like Nitish Kumar.”
At the closed-door session of the national executive, Nitish is learnt to have vented his annoyance over the affairs of the INDIA bloc, picking on the Congress mildly for not giving him enough credit for the caste-based survey he had successfully done in Bihar; he also appeared to stick the blame for the delay in finalising the seat-sharing arrangement on the Congress.
“Rashtriya star par hamare kaamon ki utni charcha nahi hoti hai. Congress pehle karti thi, ab nahi karti hai,” (Nationally, the work we have done is not talked about. Congress used to do it earlier but not now), Nitish was quoted by party leaders as having said. Party leaders said that Nitish pointed out how at the Mumbai INDIA meeting it was decided to include the proposal of undertaking a caste-based census nationally on the lines of Bihar but was dropped from the resolution after some parties opposed it.
Some JDU leaders also aired their annoyance at Nitish not being named convener or the prime ministerial face of INDIA. “Nitish Kumar ji INDIA gathbandhan ke vicharon ke sanyonjak aur vicharon ke pradhan mantri hai. Mai ye bahut categorically bolna chahta hoon,” (Nitish Kumar is the convenor and also the Prime Minister face of the views of the INDIA bloc. I want to say this very categorically), JDU general secretary K.C. Tyagi told reporters on being asked if Nitish would be projected as the PM-face of INDIA.
Upset over being ignored, Nitish appeared to have decided to hit the road on his own to assert his leadership of the Opposition bloc. Tyagi said that the national executive decided that Nitish and the party will undertake a countrywide campaign, starting mid-January (around the time that Rahul Gandhi begins his Bharat Nyay Yatra), to press for a caste-based census across the country with the successful survey done in Bihar as example.
“In mid-January, Nitish ji will start a countrywide campaign from Jharkhand to demand a caste-based census like Bihar to be undertaken nationally,” Tyagi said. At the meeting, the party also decided to contest some seats outside Bihar — in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and some other yet-unspecified states. A resolution terming the Bihar caste-based survey as a “historic initiative” was also passed.
The mild barbs at the Congress sparked speculation of Nitish springing another surprise and returning to the BJP fold. Though Tyagi ruled out the possibility asserting that Nitish and JDU will continue to fight the BJP, the speculation continued to swirl given Nitish’s past record of flip-flops.
Asked about attending the Ram temple consecration ceremony at Ayodhya that seems to have put the Congress and other INDIA bloc members in a spot, Tyagi unequivocally said yes. “If we are invited then we will surely attend it,” Tyagi said, asserting that the party was clear in its views on this aspect. “We had long held that the Ayodhya issue should be settled by the court. Now that it has been settled by the Supreme Court, we will abide by the decision,” he said.
Party leaders, however, firmly ruled out the possibility of returning to the BJP-fold, pointing towards the scathing attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the political resolution, claiming that it was drafted at the behest of Nitish.
“…the BJP is playing with SANATAN to undermine the Constitution made by baba Saheb Ambedkar…They want India should not be governed by Baba Saheb’s constitution, but the governance and social system should be governed on the basis of Manusmriti,” the political resolution said, stressing that the country was headed towards “dictatorship” under Modi.
In Bihar’s context, Nitish getting direct control of his party affairs was seen a move aimed at keeping the JDU flock intact amid fears that both current ally RJD and friend-turned-foe BJP could be attempt poaching Nitish’s ranks. Amid speculation that the 72-year-old Nitish is in “poor health” a section of the JDU fears that the RJD could try to pinch some of their MLAs to make Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav the chief minister. Currently, Tejashwi is Nitish’s deputy.
