JD(U) advisor and former Rajya Sabha MP K C Tyagi, who has joined the Bihar poll campaign alongside party chief and CM Nitish Kumar, spoke to The Indian Express about Nitish’s health, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav as a challenger, the emergence of Jan Suraaj Party and Prashant Kishor, and more. Excerpts:
As a socialist activist, I believe Nitish Kumar is perhaps the last socialist leader who has carried forward the legacy of Congress Socialist Party (CSP) founders Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaparakash Narayan and Rammanohar Lohia.
Tejashwi Prasad Yadav making such allegations does not behove him. He did not say anything about Nitish Kumar’s health when he had been the deputy CM under Nitish from August 2022 to January 2024. In fact, Nitish Kumar is in much better health than Lalu Prasad.
I can say a lot of things about some other Opposition leaders. What I have gathered through my personal interactions and conversations with Nitish Kumar is that he is still very mentally alert. He does not need anyone’s support to walk. He has been our star campaigner this election. Nitish is still the most politically attractive and credible politician of Bihar.
As for anti-incumbency, I want to ask, what kind of anti-incumbency? Of taking Bihar from zero infrastructure to mass construction of roads, bridges and buildings? Or of taking Bihar to an era of growth and big hope?
I would not call them freebies. It is a way to assist women in exploring ways of self-employment. Nitish has taken so many such initiatives in non-election times. When Nitish introduced the bicycle scheme for girls in 2007, there was no election. He announced a 50 per cent quota for women in panchayat (2006) and a 35 per cent quota in Bihar government jobs for women (2016) in non-election years. What Nitish did with women-centric schemes was to blur lines of caste, religion and gender.
If our Opposition is hinting at what happened in Maharashtra, let us make it clear Nitish Kumar is not Eknath Shinde, nor can anyone make him one. Nitish Kumar has been a big leader in his own right. He has been CM for almost 20 years, irrespective of the alliance he has chosen to be part of. I am also not reading too much into Amit Shah’s statements because over a dozen NDA leaders, including some BJP leaders, have endorsed Nitish as CM post-polls, too. And, you do not change your captain midway through the battle.
I can say with a lot of responsibility that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has not been very happy with Tejashwi’s projection. It has given too much prominence to the RJD at the expense of their idea of a rainbow coalition. We also do not read too much into Tejashwi’s politics of counter-doles as a Rs 30,000 monthly salary to 2.5 crore people would mean Rs 9 lakh crore annual expenses, against the state’s budget of less than Rs 3.25 lakh crore. We also do not subscribe to the Congress’s newfound backward and Dalit politics. Congress wants to revamp itself at the cost of its allies.
We need something to draw a comparison to. We have to bring in the Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi regime to compare with the Nitish regime. We have got to talk about booth capturing, kidnapping for ransom, road robberies and chain of caste massacres then. In comparison, Nitish has given Patna its own Marine Drive in Ganga Path and many landmarks of development.
Socialist parties had grown at the expense of the Congress, which had been too upper caste-centric. We are socialists by birth. Rahul Gandhi has been talking about the backwards and Dalits to regain lost ground. BJP has also been trying to expand its social ambit. But we are the originals, and Nitish Kumar is the last man standing to safeguard the socialist legacy.
No chance. We had given the INDIA bloc a chance. It could not value Nitish Kumar. Congress cannot get over its hubris and has been doing its politics through memory. They still suffer from a sense of entitlement. We are happy and proud to be part of NDA, which has been more accommodating and respectful.
I admire his high intellectual quotient. But he has not come from any political training. He might influence a section of urban youth and migrants, but the vast Bihar populace does not understand him or his narrative. He may do a bit of Arvind Kejriwal, but Bihar is not Delhi. It takes time to accept someone as a leader. Nitish too has waited long.
