Powerful poll-show, but where’s BJP’s Bihar ‘CM’?

Dheeraj Kumar

Patna: Despite putting up a far better show than chief minister Nitish Kumar`s JD (U) in the last assembly election, BJP in Bihar is yet to shed its inhibition in projecting a leader, who could emerge as a strong contender to the CM post. BJP’s decision not to project a leader, who could be chief ministerial candidate of the party or NDA in the next state assembly election, baffles many. It is intriguing why BJP is allowing so much leeway to Nitish when the party’s seat tally in the last assembly election (74) was far ahead of JD (U), which was restricted to 43, commented a political analyst.

Even as the difference in the number of seats won by BJP and JD (U) in the last polls was huge, BJP accepted Nitish as the chief minister as the party had promised him the chair ahead of assembly election, irrespective of the seats won by BJP and JD (U) in the hustings. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who was Bihar’s deputy chief minister from 2005 to 2020, did not assert his position or his party’s during all these 15 years. Political analyst Pushya Mitra said Nitish has positioned himself in the state politics in such a way that BJP could not annoy him beyond a point as he had dumped NDA earlier to align with RJD-led grand alliance. “BJP could not take away leadership from Nitish despite leaving his party far behind in the seat tally in the last polls,” Mitra commented.