Nitish Kumar Remains the Cornerstone of Bihar Politics Amid Opposition’s Challenges

For two decades, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been the pivot of Bihar politics. Whenever the election season comes, Nitish Babu's opponents start making all kinds of claims about his defeat, but history is witness that every time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and JDU have taken the wind out of the opponents.

Every time Nitish Kumar defeated the opponents

Before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had made many allegations about the health of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Tejashwi Yadav claimed that in the Lok Sabha elections, RJD would leave JDU behind in Bihar, but when the results came, all the political pundits were surprised. JDU candidates under the leadership of Nitish Babu had won 12 seats. After this stellar performance of JDU, Nitish Kumar once again emerged as a major political force in the country. This time Nitish Babu also has an important role in maintaining the stability of the Modi government at the Center. RJD and Tejashwi Yadav got a big shock from the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The performance of Nitish Kumar's party JDU surprised all the opponents. Despite contesting fewer Lok Sabha seats than BJP in Bihar, most of the JDU candidates won the elections. In this Lok Sabha election, Nitish Kumar's JDU contested on 16 seats in Bihar, in which the 'arrows' of JDU candidates hit the right target on 12 seats.

RJD could not stand against Nitish Kumar even in the by-election

A few months ago, by-elections were held on four seats in Bihar. In the by-elections held on Tarari, Ramgarh, Belaganj and Imamganj seats, NDA under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar defeated India Block. While NDA retained the Imamganj seat, NDA was also successful in snatching the seats of Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj from 'India' Block. If the result of any seat created the most trouble for Tejashwi Yadav, it was Belaganj. Belagnj assembly seat was considered to be the stronghold of RJD's veteran leader Surendra Yadav, but after he became an MP, this seat became vacant and RJD suffered a major setback. Belagnj was a seat which was occupied by RJD for 35 years. In this by-election, JDU candidate Manorama Devi defeated Surendra Yadav's son Vishwanath by 20,968 votes. In this way, Nitish Babu's candidate demolished RJD's fort in Belagnj. Tarari seat which was considered to be the stronghold of CPI(ML) was also snatched by BJP from the All India Alliance. At the same time, Ajit Singh, son of RJD's senior leader Jagdanand Singh, was fielded in the electoral battle of Ramgarh, but he slipped to third place. After Ajit Singh's crushing defeat, Jagdanand Singh has gone into the political background. The by-elections on four seats were the biggest platform to test the political strength before the Bihar assembly elections, but the RJD-led All India Alliance was out on zero in this battle.

RJD leadership is in confusion after the results of the by-elections

The results of the first Lok Sabha elections and then the assembly by-elections made RJD supremo Lalu Yadav know the ground reality of Bihar. Lalu Yadav realized that Tejashwi Yadav would not be able to taste power with the support of Congress and the Left, so as soon as the new year began, Lalu Yadav offered Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to join him. Lalu Yadav had said, 'Our doors are open for him, he should also keep the doors open. It does not suit him that he runs away every time, but if Nitish wants to come back, we will forgive him'. Seeing the huge embarrassment caused to the party by Lalu Yadav's offer, Tejashwi Yadav had backed out from it, but Lalu Yadav's offer made it clear that the RJD high command has definitely realized the political strength of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Why is Tejashwi raising questions on Nitish's health only after the electoral defeat?

Tejashwi Yadav wanted to make Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's health a big political issue in the Lok Sabha and Assembly by-elections, but the people of Bihar refused to accept it. Despite this, Tejashwi has been repeatedly making allegations about the health of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. This shows that RJD does not have any solid issue against Nitish Kumar. Actually, Tejashwi Yadav feels that the Nitish government has done a good job on the unemployment front. At the same time, there has been a radical change in Bihar in the field of roads and electricity. In such a situation, Tejashwi Yadav has no major issue left, so he is trying to surround JDU by repeatedly raising questions on the health of the Chief Minister.

Nitish's strength is women, Mahadalits and extremely backward

It is not an easy task to remain in power for such a long time by winning elections in a politically sensitive state like Bihar. Lalu Yadav had a strong social alliance like MY equation, but despite this he had to go out of power. In such a situation, the question arises that what magic wand does Nitish Kumar have that he has been the pivot of Bihar politics for two decades. In fact, with time, Nitish Kumar has prepared a vote bank of women, extremely backward and Mahadalits. Muslim voters also have a liberal attitude towards Nitish Kumar. At the same time, Nitish Babu gets the support of upper castes, Paswans and Mahadalits through alliance with BJP, Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi. If we look closely at this large social base of NDA, it does not seem that Tejashwi is in a position to challenge Nitish Babu from anywhere.

India Block is disintegrating after seeing Nitish Babu's power

Seeing the political and social base of NDA under the leadership of Nitish Babu, India Block has started disintegrating. Congress has removed Lalu Yadav's favorite Akhilesh Singh from the post of state president. At the same time, Kanhaiya Kumar has also taken out a padyatra in Bihar, all political pundits know that Lalu family does not like Kanhaiya at all. Earlier, the new state president of Congress used to attend Lalu Yadav's court, but Rajesh Kumar did not do anything like this this time. Even in the Iftar party given by Lalu Yadav, big leaders of Congress and Mukesh Sahni were not seen. By the way, a few days ago, Lalu Yadav had directly challenged the leadership of Rahul Gandhi by calling Mamta Banerjee a big leader of the opposition, since then Rahul Gandhi has been teaching a lesson to RJD. At the same time, JDU MLC Neeraj Kumar has taken a dig at the infighting going on in the Mahagathbandhan. He said, 'Now no one is ready to be a partner in Lalu ji's 'paap karma'. Neither Congress, nor any other partner. The glory of Lalu ji's Iftar was lost, when even the allies turned their back. Congress kept watching from a distance. It clearly means that neither allies, nor family, no one is ready to be a partner in Lalu ji's sinful deeds'.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is absolutely healthy

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has looked absolutely healthy in Pragati Yatra and the session of the Assembly. During the Pragati Yatra, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had continuously visited several districts and interacted with the officials. The announcements of schemes worth thousands of crores of rupees in the Pragati Yatra also got approval from the cabinet. This shows that Nitish Kumar is successfully fulfilling the responsibilities of the post of Chief Minister. At the same time, in the assembly session also, Nitish Babu has answered the questions of the opposition leaders in a measured manner. In such a situation, all the claims of Tejashwi Yadav regarding Nitish Babu's health seem to be colored only in political color.

It is clear that politically RJD and India Alliance are not able to find a solution to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Therefore, under tension, the leaders of the opposition are making personal attacks on the Chief Minister, but this kind of politics has been completely rejected by the people of Bihar from 2005 till now. In such a situation, it can be easily guessed what will be the result of the upcoming assembly elections.