‘Shifting Nitish to Rajya Sabha is an Insult to Bihar People’s Mandate’

Seema Singh, a freelance scholar and communicator, says the JD (U) faces a bleak future in Bihar in the absence of a charismatic leader. Her views:

Considering how the Bharatiya Janata Party has conducted itself in the past, it is evident that if they ever have an upper hand in the numbers game, they would, by all means, like to have their own party person as the chief minister of Bihar. In my opinion it is an unethical strategy, but, by now, politically accepted practice established by the saffron party. Nevertheless, such action entails mistrust in coalition politics.

But, is the BJP worried? I do not believe so. They were successful in using the same method in Maharashtra, while toppling the Udhav Thackeray government in the state. The party has mastered the art of cannibalizing on its allies for several years now.

Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar has been the chief minister for 20 long years and was projected as the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate ahead of the state assembly elections. Nitish himself does not boast of an ethical political leader. He has done opportunistic somersaults in the past, betraying erstwhile coalition partner Rashtriya Janata Dal, which did not seek the top post despite a majority in the state assembly in the past.

The mandate the NDA got this time was clearly a signal by the voters that Nitish Kumar should lead and continue for the fifth time in office. It’s indeed unethical and undemocratic to remove him as an elected CM of Bihar and offer him a cushy Rajya Sabha seat in Delhi; surely, it’s an insult to the people’s mandate.

It’s still unclear, under what circumstances and for what reasons Nitish Kumar has settled for such an arrangement. This is even more intriguing since he has never shown any desire to retire from active politics, neither before the elections nor after winning a good number of seats in the assembly for his party in the last assembly polls in Bihar.

In the absence of the principled party leader, I do not see much prospects for the JD(U) in the state since the party lacks an ideological base. The party faces a bleak future as there is no other leader who commands the same aura or respect from its members and supporters to lead the party in the absence of Nitish Kumar. That is why there is a desperate attempt to establish his son as a leader.

As told to Amit Sengupta