All’s not well between Nitish, rest of the Opposition: 5 signs of friction in Bihar and INDIA alliances

The latest point of friction was Nitish’s remarks on Wednesday in which he appeared to target dynastic rule while paying homage to former Bihar CM and socialist icon Karpoori Thakur at his centenary celebrations.

“Karpoori never promoted his family,” Nitish said at a public meeting in Patna on Wednesday. “It was only after his death, we pressured his son Ramnath to join politics. He is now Rajya Sabha MP and we respect him very much. Lekin aajkal to log parivar karte rahte hai … aaj log bahut parivar ko badhate rahte hai (these days, people keep promoting their family members in politics). But like Karpoori, I have not promoted my family in politics.”

Though Nitish did not name any party, the BJP has targeted the RJD and the Congress in the past for allegedly promoting “dynastic politics”. On Thursday, Lalu’s Singapore-based daughter Rohini Acharya posted, subsequently deleted, on social media platform X: “Samajwadi purodha hone ka dawa karta wahi dawa hai, hawaon ki tarah badalti jinki vichardhara hai (One whose ideology changes with the direction of the wind claims to be the patron of socialism).” There was also said to be little interaction between Nitish and Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, which went on for about just 20 mins.

* Changing the Education Minister

The RJD is said to have sensed unease in the Mahagathbandhan and on January 20 readily agreed to replace Chandra Shekhar with Alok Kumar Mehta as the Education Minister to not ruffle Nitish’s feathers. Chandra Shekhar was known for making controversial remarks — from referring to some verses of the Ramcharitmanas as “casteist” and “potassium cyanide” to backing fellow RJD MLA Fateh Bahadur Kushwaha on his remarks against Hindu goddess Saraswati — and his relegation was seen more as a matter of the RJD seeking peace with Nitish than to effect a change for better governance.

* Simultaneous polls a point of friction?

On the evening of January 20, Nitish rejigged the team of national office-bearers of the JD(U). He announced a 21-member team, dropping six of the party’s seven Lok Sabha MPs from it. Some of them are said to be close to former party national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh or Lalan Singh who lost his post to Nitish last month amid reports that the CM had been upset with him over his alleged proximity to Lalu Prasad.

Lalan Singh’s removal as JD(U) chief was said to have not gone down well with Tejashwi cancelling his official Australia tour, which was to begin on January 6. A key RJD leader said the party “did not want to take any chances by sending its key leader out of the country at a time with the uncertainty in state politics”.

Sources in the RJD and JD (U) at the time said Nitish had been “pressuring” Lalu to agree to simultaneous Assembly polls along with the Lok Sabha elections slated for April-May. Nitish is said to have come under increasing pressure from within his party to go for synchronised elections so that the party could improve on its tally of 43 constituencies in the 2020 Assembly elections, when it emerged as the third-largest party behind the RJD and the BJP.

“Nitish looks desperate for simultaneous polls because he is afraid of exodus in his party. But why should we force Assembly polls on the state one-and-a-half years before schedule?” an RJD leader said at the time.

* Credit for jobs and hospitals

The Bihar government on January 20 also put out a full-page advertisement in local newspapers about the state health department’s key initiatives, which did not make any reference to Tejashwi, who holds the health portfolio among other ministries.

The ad said that while Bihar previously had only six medical colleges (until the Lalu-led RJD’s tenure in 2005), the state now had 15 medical colleges and hospitals and that the government had sanctioned another 15 medical colleges and hospitals for the future. “Everyone knows health is the key department under RJD. Even if there is no photograph of the health minister with the ad, there should have been a mention of the health minister,” an RJD leader told The Indian Express at the time.

There was also unease in the alliance over credit for the jobs generated by the government. On January 13, the Bihar government ran advertisements on its employment drive with the slogan: “Rojgar Matlab Nitish Kumar (employment means Nitish Kumar).” That day, appointment letters were distributed to 96,823 teachers offline and virtually. The CM, at an event at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, handed out appointment letters to 12 teachers.

“Everyone knows that the 10-lakh jobs initiative was our idea and promise during the 2020 polls,” RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari told The Indian Express back then. “We should have been given equal credit and a picture of the deputy CM should have been included in the government advertisement. People know that it is the Nitish-Tejashwi government and not just a Nitish Kumar government. The employment drive is our baby and it cannot be hijacked.”

In November 2023, during the first phase of the teachers’ mass recruitment, the government appointed 1,20,336 teachers. The state government claims to have achieved a teacher-student ratio of 1:5, with 51 women teachers being among the newly appointed ones in the two phases.

* Differences in INDIA alliance

The lack of consensus in the Opposition alliance may have also played a role in pushing Nitish away and led him to question his future with the grouping. He turned down an offer to become its convener till there was agreement on his role. Last year, he had taken the initiative to get all the anti-BJP parties together on a common platform, helping in the formation of the INDIA bloc.

The Bihar CM is said to have always pushed for a consensus regarding his role in the coalition, but a meeting between West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal last month before the meeting of the INDIA bloc in Delhi is said to have strengthened his reservations. He was said to have been left upset with Banerjee proposing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name for leader of the alliance.”

Kharge’s statement earlier this month that the INDIA alliance would meet in “10 to 15 days” to make decisions about key posts did not sit well with the JD(U) that claimed that the INDIA alliance was “running out of time and ideas” to outthink the BJP. “INDIA is still in a confused state. What if Lok Sabha polls are announced soon after the Ram Temple opening? We still do not have clarity on seat-sharing, agenda, and leadership roles,” JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi told The Indian Express at the time.