Nitish Kumar’s most daring political act has been changing allies as he deems fit, marked by frequent yet calculated alliances and breakups. He parted ways with the BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi’s emergence as the party’s national face.
The thumping victory of the BJP-JD(U) alliance in Bihar has sent out a clear signal that everything is fine within the NDA and that BJP’s partnership with the JD(U) in the heartland state is going to extend further. JD(U) boss Nitish Kumar was last sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar on August 10, 2022.
With this victory Nitish Kumar may have killed two birds with one stone. His improved performance consolidates his position within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) vis-a-vis the senior partner BJP. This was very important because the BJP was beginning to treat him less seriously. Secondly is victory at home ensures that his principal rival in Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has been dealt with properly.
Some analysts said that it was known that the NDA had an edge over its rivals but no one could have predicted this Nitish avalanche. It seems the good governance by Nitish paid off. The BJP, which was initially reluctant to name him as the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate for 2025, has been told by the Bihar electorate that they could not push around their leader.
Over the last two decades that he has been chief minister, the JD(U) supremo has developed a reputation for good governance, earning the moniker of “sushasan babu” (roughly translates to “master of good governace”). On the eve of the election, an analysis of socio-economic indicators, from the start of his first term as CM in 2005 to now, showed how far Bihar has come under Nitish.
On a range of indicators in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), from 2005-06 to 2019-21 (the latest available data), Bihar improved at a faster rate than the national average under Nitish, drawing the state much closer to pan-Indian living standards than when he took over. According to the NFHS data, by 2019-21, Bihar had almost caught up with the national average in household electrification: 96 per cent of households in the state reported electricity as their main source of lighting, compared to 97 per cent across India.
That Nitish Kumar’s stock with ally BJP is set to reach a higher level is also obvious. The JD(U)’s 12 MPs support PM Narendra Modi’s coalition NDA government in Delhi, whose importance is set to be magnified with the coalition consolidating its position in the state, and by extension with the Centre.
Nitish is now in the elite company of former chief ministers like Jyoti Basu and Naveen Patnaik and can now leave a legacy in his home state.” In his mid-seventies, Nitish Kumar emerged from the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) Movement of the 1970s, a breeding ground for many socialist leaders of his generation, including RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav. He entered electoral politics in the early 1980s, winning his first assembly election from Harnaut in 1985, and later serving as a member of Parliament for Barh and Nalanda.
The Bihar chief minister continues to dominate the state’s political narrative. Whether leading the NDA or aligning with the Opposition, every move he makes reshapes Bihar’s electoral landscape.
Nitish Kumar’s most daring political act has been changing allies as he deems fit, marked by frequent yet calculated alliances and breakups. He parted ways with the BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi’s emergence as the party’s national face, only to ally with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and the Congress for the 2015 election, forming the Mahagathbandhan. He returned to the NDA fold a couple of years later, and won again in 2020. Then came a blip back to the MGB, but then he was back to the NDA.
The victory in Bihar has also strengthened the NDA and its top leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Bihar witnessed the first election in the country after Operation Sindoor and a victory means endorsement of Modi’s policies, especially his aggressive brand of nationalism which is being propagated by the BJP.
