Cold War Over CM Face in Bihar

NDA principal partners in Bihar- BJP and JDU- are locked in an Intense cold war over continuation of chief minister Nitish Kumar if the alliance wins the 2025 Assembly election due coming November. 

Those who pledge fealty to Nitish have the apprehension that BJP might upstage ‘Sushasan Babu’ plan this time round. And the BJP has made its intention amply clear on so many occasions, though not in many words.

Asked a few months back whether Nitish would continue to hold the reins if the NDA wins 2025 assembly elections, home minister Amit Shah’s answer that he was the chief minister at the moment gave a clear indication that he was non-committal on his fifth term as NDA chief minister.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the state five times this year, but at no public meetings that he addressed said that Nitish would be chief minister next time as well. 

It has put the JDU workers in a quandary who want a categorical assurance from the prime minister that there would be no change in the leadership if NDA trumps the INDIA alliance in the state election. BJP has planned meticulously to deny Nitish the next chance.  

Recently, JDU has come up with one slogan after another to promote the claim of Nitish on the CM chair. The latest one is ‘25 Se 30, Phir Se Nitish (25 to 30, Once Again Nitish). JDU, a few days back, put up a huge hoarding with this slogan printed on it outside the party’s state headquarters.

Social media was also splashed with this catching unique sales pitch. Party leaders made it a point to highlight this slogan in their public meetings. But one morning, JDU workers woke up to a new poster on social media pasted on the walls of the party headquarters in place of the hoarding.

The new poster with a new slogan ‘Ek Baar Phir, NDA Sarkar' was there with beaming faces of Modi and Nitish looking out of it. JDU found themselves unnerved over the new poster and called one another to clear their doubts as to whether it was a social media mischief or genuine. At last, they had the confirmation that the poster pasted on the walls of the party headquarters was genuine. They were told that the posters had come from the BJP office and were pasted at the behest of national acting president of the party Sanjay Jha and party’s state unit treasurer Lallan Kumar Saraf. 

The party leadership maintained a complete silence over it. But the very next day, the old hoarding with ‘25 Se Tees, Ek Baar Phir Nitish’ was once again on display outside the party headquarters. But things did not stand at that. To counter the audacity of JDU, BJP put up their poster outside their state headquarters in Patna featuring Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi with the old slogan ‘Ek Baar Phir, NDA Sarkar’.

The tug of war between the two poles has made it clear that the quarrel over the chief ministership might spill into the open on any day in the coming days. Leader of opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Yadav caught on the war of words between the main partners of the NDA, cautioning Nitish Kumar in the Assembly's ongoing session that four leaders of his party are in cahoots with BJP, insinuating about Sanjay Jha, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lallan Singh and Ashok Chakradhary. No JDU leaders present in the House countered it.

But when Tejashwi further stoked the emotions of the party leaders saying that BJP was trying to hijack JDU, Vijay Kumar stood up and asserted that no one can hijack Nitish Kumar. He also tried to hijack their party when they were with him in the government but failed miserably.

 But BJP MLAs present in the House remained cold during the exchanges between Chaudhary and Tejashwi. But leaders close to Nitish admit in private that BJP has captured the party as well as the government secretariat in Patna. Horses’ mouth says that with the connivance of four leaders of JDU, BJP wants to turn the tide in their favour.

They also allege that through retired IAS officer Deepak Kumar, BJP has captured the chief minister's secretariat.  On the other hand, LJP president and union minister Chirag Paswan, who during the last Assembly election, had declared himself to be Hanuman of Narendra Modi, is also targeting the chief minister Nitish on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, in tune with Tejashwi. JDU leaders feel that Paswan cannot be so vocal without a tacit support of BJP. On August 8, Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Bihar to lay the foundation stones of ‘Maan Sita Madir’ at Sitamarhi. 

JDU workers are awaiting with bated breath if he would clear the doubts over the next chief ministership. Tejashwi has also dared Shah to declare Nitish as NDA’s chief ministerial face.