The nitish enigma

The nitish enigma

After supporting Kovind, Bihar CM keeps everyone guessing about his next move.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is presiding over a full-blown crisis among his coalition partners. The latest war of words between Nitish's JD(U) and Lalu Prasad's RJD is over which candidate to support in presidential elections. RJD and Congress have accused JD(U) of betrayal and of breach of opposition unity, by supporting NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind. Nitish retorted that Congress has fielded former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar only because she is a Dalit. By keeping everyone guessing about his next move, he appears to be hedging his bets.
Ironically, Nitish was one of the first to advocate for non-NDA parties to come together on a common platform to take on the Narendra Modi juggernaut before the 2019 election. Thus he surprised many, not just his Bihar mahagathbandhan partners, when he welcomed the candidature of then Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind as NDA's presidential candidate a few weeks ago. JD(U)'s official endorsement of Kovind came just a day before 17 opposition parties were scheduled to meet to finalise their own candidate.
Nitish had bucked the trend earlier as well ¬ in 2012 ¬ when he backed Pranab Mukherjee for president despite being a part of NDA at the time. From hindsight this can be seen as a precursor of his leaving the NDA ¬ which he did the following year breaking off a 17 year relationship. It's understandable, therefore, that Nitish's support for Kovind should spark speculation about his impending departure from the mahagathbandhan. That would be a coup for BJP. Indeed, his former comrade-in-arms Sushil Modi has been wooing him for rejoining NDA. Modi has credited Nitish for the increase in RJD's tally, from 22 to 80, in the current assembly.
Nitish has been known for his `sushasan' or good governance in Bihar but his current term at the helm, where he has taken the help of the mahagathbandhan, has been lacklustre. If that has made him insecure, such insecurity would be heightened by current charges of corruption being faced by the kin of Lalu Prasad, his current coalition partner. Those charges have placed Nitish on the back foot as they can damage his carefully built image for clean governance. On the other hand, for a man who may have had prime ministerial ambitions, joining NDA now would mean playing junior partner to Modi. Nitish's best bet, therefore, may be to keep everyone guessing.