To Keep the Flock Together, JDU Needs Nishant

Having been on a “spiritual journey” for two-third of his life, Nishant Kumar, 49-year-old bachelor and the only engineering graduate son of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is readying himself, or rather the party is preparing him, to enter the temporal world– politics and join JDU and take the baton from his father in the coming months or years.

A few months back he was sighted in a Patna market purchasing a speaker. When reporters asked him about joining politics, he said: “I listen to Hare Rama, Hare Krishna hymn, and am buying a speaker for it.”  He ruled out entering politics, saying he had chosen the path of spiritualism. But recently, when the same query was put to him, he did not deny, just evaded it.

Nishant had got attracted to spiritualism for a brief time when he was looking for a job after having graduated from the Patna Engineering College. He had gone to Mumbai and met Acharya Rajnish alias Osho.

Political analysts say that the chief minister had dropped the idea of his son joining politics and later putting his mantle on him in public space through party office bearers to test the political mood of the State before he takes a decision on it. They further say that the father is holding on to a formal announcement on letting the son take the plunge as he has been a staunch critic of dynastic succession in politics.

 But ideals and ethics have no place in politics, and Nitish knows and has been practising it for well over two decades. So, he will have no qualms in breaking it this time as well. As regards people’s mood, it is always used as a ruse to justify the will of rulers. Majority opinion in Bihar wants liquor ban to go but the chief minister continues with it by creating myths about its success.

Also, over the years people in the state have become resigned to dynastic political succession. They accepted Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Yadav, late Ramvilas Pawan’s successor Chirag Paswan, and now waiting for Nishant Kumar when it comes, with a deadpan face.

Holi was organised at the official bungalow of the Chief Minister this year after a gap of nine years to provide a platform for Nishant Kumar to interact with top party leaders and put across the message that the son will very soon slip into the shoes of the father.

The party got him photographed with senior party leaders and ministers– Vijay Kumar, Ashok Chaudhary and Nitish’s Man Friday and party’s acting national president Sanjay Jha. His photos with Sanjay Jha and Chaudhary were particularly taken note of as an indicator of the scene unfolding in the party.

JDU leaders coming out of the CM’s house after celebrating Holi gave strong hints of the churning in the party over Nishant. “We met Nishant and exchanged Holi greetings with him. We feel that he will become active in the JDU in the coming days,” said Kamal Nepali, State general secretary of the party.

“We met the chief minister as well as his son. We hope that very soon Nishant will take over the command of the party,” said JDU leader Lakshmi Singh. It was reported that the party workers first met Nishant and the latter smeared them gulal, and thereafter they met the chief minister. So, the precedence also gives a strong indication about the direction the wind was blowing in the party.

Not only political leaders, journalists and intellectuals are veering round towards the party’s establishment view that Nishant should join politics.

Political analyst Sanjay Kumar says that “Nishant should join politics. He has the legacy of Nitish Kumar. He has learnt the tricks of politics under the benign care of his father. If he enters politics, it will augur well for the country as well as the Stare”

“Nitish has already played his innings in politics. The important question is who will lead JDU. It is a compulsion for Nitish to bring his son in JDU if he wants to save the party,” he further says.

Journalist Ravi Upadhyay says that “Nishant has all the qualities a politician must possess. He is being sidelined only because he is the son of the chief minister. He is an educated and a thoughtful person. If he joins politics, the country and the State could go ahead on the path of development. He will prove to be Tendulkar in Bihar politics.”

“As now there is no leader in the JDU who can keep the party together. At present, Nishant is looking at the only choice as an alternative,” says journalist Praveen Bagi.

“Several JDU leaders are interested in making Nishant the face of the party.  Only he can keep the party together after Nitish. As Nishant is not politically mature enough, they can handle him as per their wishes,” he further says. It will be interesting to watch whether he stands on the faith reposed in him,” he further says.

But Bagi adds a caveat to his views on Nishant. “My experience so far says that Nishant has neither any interest in politics nor has he tried to prove himself (a politician). He has shown no signs of a politician should possess, he says

“Nishant is the only face who can save the JDU, and it can remain united under him. There are several JDU leaders who can merge the party with any other party after Nitish. It is a possibility,” says Journalist Kanhaiya Bhellari.

If a person (Nishant), who is educated and a visionary, has been under his caring father for a long time and possesses good sanskar, joins politics, it will be better for Bihar,” says B.N. Prasad of A.N. College at Patna.

Nishant has started accompanying his father to public functions. Recently, the two together paid homage to the wife and the mother, Manju Sinha, respectively at her memorial at Patna on her birth anniversary. He is likely to contest from Harnaut from where Nitish Kumar was elected to the Bihar Assembly in 1995.

Chief minister’s cousin Awdesh Singh told a reporter emphatically that Nishant would contest from Harnaut. How did he undergo such a drastic change to shift from one extreme to another is a question which only he can answer.

Posters and banners put across Patna are shouting out slogans from the repertoire of party minions: “Bihar Kare Pukar, Aayiye Nishant Kumar” (Come Nishant Kumar, Bihar is Calling).

Some speculate that with Nitish Kumar having reached the last leg of his two decades-old political journey and the JDU having no leader of his calibre and charisma to replace him, it is only his son who can flock together and save the party from disintegrating.

“Nitish would lose a poll plank (anti-dynatic agenda) once he allows his son to enter politics but at the same time, Nishant’s entry would also help keeping the JD(U) flock together if Nitish Kumar decides to call it a day,” is the opinion of a professor at Patna.

“It is an indication of the decline of Nitish Kumar as a mass leader, and it would be better if he hands the baton to Nishant,” says RJD spokesperson Shakti Yadav. Though the Chief Minister and his son have so far kept mum on his political launch, several on-record statements by JDU leaders have left no doubts about his entry into the party.

Tejashwi Yadav has put his own spin on the story: Sanghi in the JDU may prevent Nishant from joining the party as he is against their political ideology. “...I would be happy (on Nishant joining JDU) because there are people of the BJP and RSS mindset in the JDU who want to hijack it formed by late socialist leader Sharad Yadavji. I would also like him (Nishant) to settle down as soon as possible,” Tejashwi Yadav says.

Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is also egging on Nishant Kumar to join the party, saying that he is an engineer and promising. “A warm welcome to the son of Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Nishant, into politics. HAM is with Nishant,” Manjhi says.

Nishant is a software engineering graduate from the Birsa Institute of Technology, Mesra, in Jharkhand. He had his schooling at two places, Patna and Mussoorie. 

He was shifted to a boarding school in Mussoorie following his beating by a teacher at his Patna. However, his mother brought him back from Mussoorie and got him admitted in a Kendriya Vidlaya in Patna when he showed home sickness symptoms. So, another leader is likely to be airdropped in Bihar.