The city of Moscow has a link to the political history of Bihar.
A decision made here would become the catalyst for Nitish Kumar’s first full tenure as Bihar Chief Minister. On May 22, 2005, then President APJ Abdul Kalam arrived in Moscow, the first stop on an 11-day multi-country tour. Before he could settle in his suite at the Kempinski Hotel, he received a phone call from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
It was around midnight in Delhi when the PM informed Kalam that the Union Cabinet had decided to recommend the dissolution of the newly elected Bihar Legislative Assembly.
During the current Bihar elections, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has often asked the NDA about its choice for Chief Minister. BJP leaders have replied that Nitish Kumar will remain the leader of the NDA government. Kumar, who is 74 and leads the Janata Dal (United), has served as Chief Minister for 20 years. He has taken the oath of office nine times, leading governments with both the BJP and the RJD. And it was in 2005 that the BJP recognised Nitish as the CM face of the NDA alliance in Bihar.
The first CM innings
Nitish first became Bihar CM for a week in 2000, as part of the Samata Party. He had to resign since he could not muster a majority in the 325-member Assembly. After the creation of Jharkhand, the strength of the House was adjusted to the present 243. The next Bihar elections, in 2005, marked the start of Nitish’s leadership of the state. In this election, Nitish, now in JD(U), continued to ally with the BJP. Arun Jaitley, then the BJP in-charge for Bihar along with Nitish, crafted the NDA campaign focusing on good governance. They highlighted the deteriorating law-and-order situation during the 20 years when Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi were at the helm of the state.
In February 2005, polling for the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly was held in three phases. Senior JD(U) leader Sanjay Jha recalls that the NDA started the 2005 Bihar campaign without a CM face. After the first phase of voting, Jaitley convinced the BJP leadership that a CM face would lead to electoral gains in the remaining two phases. And that CM face was Nitish.
The move did sway some Bihar voters, but not enough to give the NDA a majority. When the results came in, RJD emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats, and Kumar’s JD(U) was next with 55 MLAs. The other winners were the BJP with 37 seats and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) with 29 seats. Bihar voters also elected 17 Independents.
After an election, the Governor decides who to invite to form the government. With an inconclusive mandate, the focus shifted to the Governor of Bihar. In 2005, the Governor was 71-year-old Congress veteran Buta Singh. He took charge in November 2004, after having lost the Lok Sabha elections earlier that year. Singh was a consummate politician who had won eight consecutive general elections and was a colleague of Bihar leaders like Lalu, Nitish and Paswan in the Lok Sabha. Singh had also been a minister under four PMs, including a month-long stint in PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet.
Speculation was rife about which political alliance would approach the Governor to form the government. But what followed was something unusual. Paswan’s LJP told the Governor that they would not support the RJD or the BJP in government formation. Then the BJP updated the Governor on their numbers and asked him not to call the RJD to form the government. A few other parties also informed the Governor that they would not be supporting either the RJD or the NDA alliance. The RJD staked a claim, but without the support of 122 MLAs, the majority required in the Assembly. For good measure, six Independent MLAs also threw their hats in the ring for government formation.
President’s rule is imposed
Governor Singh wrote all this in his first report to President Kalam, recommending that the President keep the newly elected Assembly in suspended animation. Singh followed it up with his second report, in which he noted that the JD(U) and BJP were trying to secure a majority by winning over the LJP MLAs and splitting the Congress. And in his final report, Singh informed the President that 17-18 LJP MLAs were moving to the JD(U) and that such a move would “distort the verdict of the people”. He recommended dissolving the Assembly and holding fresh elections.
The final report was received in Delhi on May 22, 2005. After that, things moved quickly. The Cabinet met at 11 pm and decided to dissolve the Bihar Assembly. The PM called the President apprising him of the decision. He followed it with another call at 3.30 am in Delhi to answer the President’s questions. A little later, Kalam put his constitutional seal on the Cabinet’s decision. It meant that Bihar would vote again in 2005 and that the state would be under President’s rule until then.
To register their protest against the President’s decision, NDA leaders marched up Raisina Hill and presented a memorandum to the President. It stated that 22 MLAs of Paswan’s LJP had decided to merge themselves with the JD(U) due to “ideological contradictions”. As per the memorandum, the LJP MLAs’ dissatisfaction stemmed from their leader’s refusal to allow the formation of an anti-RJD government, even though their party had contested the elections opposing the RJD.
Nitish and Jaitley, along with NDA MPs, would repeatedly raise the matter in Parliament. On one particular occasion, Lalu would remark that it was not in Nitish’s fate to become Bihar CM. The matter would also reach the Supreme Court. And in October, roughly 10 days before Bihar went to polls for the second time in 2005, the Apex court would hold that the President’s dissolution of the Bihar Assembly was unconstitutional.
This time, Bihar voters gave the NDA a majority. Nitish’s JD(U) would increase its MLAs from 55 to 88, the BJP tally would go from 37 to 55, and the RJD would be relegated to third place with 54 MLAs. The LJP would lose nine of 29 winners from February to the JD(U) and end with 10 seats in the October election. And in November 2005, Nitish would be sworn in as Bihar CM, a position he would hold uninterrupted until 2025 (apart from a brief nine-month period).
The events of 2005 would have consequences beyond Bihar. The Supreme Court would indict Governor Singh, leading to his resignation, and President Kalam would also consider resigning, with the judgment recasting his relationship with the government.
The writer looks at issues through a legislative lens and works at PRS Legislative Research
