Patna: An engineer by qualification, Nitish Kumar is all set to become the chief minister of Bihar for the fourth consecutive term in a row. If he completes this term, he would break the record of a longest-serving chief minister set by late SK Sinha, the first chief minister of Bihar who served the state for 18 long years.
He has never become chief minister as a solo winner and this time again, he will be getting the support of three other political parties which includes BJP, VIP and HAM. Though he will become chief minister there are many theories revolving around his future's politics. The political experts and analyst also opined that the days ahead would not be as comfortable as it was in the past.
Looking at the theories on which Nitish's future can revolve, the first one deals with getting the top post of the state without any confrontation with the allies and running the government as usual.
“There is no doubt he will become the chief minister and he will run the government smoothly for the next six to eight months. BJP cannot afford to disappoint him or make him uneasy till West Bengal election gets over. BJP will not even touch him because the saffron party will not jeopardise the party's image before Bengal poll," said Patna based senior journalist.
Like Lalu Prasad and Sushil Modi, the 69-year-old politician is also the product of J P Movember and began his political career as a student leader. He carries the image of the leader who gives emphasis on the development and strong will power for bringing good governance in the state.
However, of late many political developments and switching sides frequently changed people's perception about Nitish and saw him as an opportunist.
The second theory deals with the situation when Nitish may face problems in the distribution of the portfolios as it would be difficult for him to command the bigger party.
“BJP is a bigger party and in the majority, it is for sure that BJP will maintain the psychological pressure on Nitish. Due to this, he will not be getting the freedom in decision making the way he used to do earlier. Second thing, as being in power at the centre, BJP would like to get the larger share in portfolios apart from some key posts in the cabinet. This would be all internal matter and won't even come in public domain or media, “said Sanjay Kumar, Patna based political analyst.
Kumar further said that BJP will explain this move as CM's discretionary power and at the same time BJP will also interfere in the functioning of the government but that will not happen soon.
The third theory deals with Nitish taking his own decision with or without BJP in days to come.
“It is not necessary that Nitish will listen to what BJP leadership will ask him to do for the next five years. It is also not necessary that he will complete five years with BJP. If he feels that he is not getting enough freedom with the number (read 43 MLA) he has, Nitish can dump BJP or can think of something else. There are also chances that he may become vice-president in days to come if he decides to move ahead of Bihar politics,” Kumar stressed.
Sociologist D M Diwakar, however, claimed that Nitish will not face any problem as most of the top leaders of BJP including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have given assurance that he will be CM.
“He left RJD on certain things and that situation still persists so there are no chances of Nitish going back to Grand Alliance fold. You take my word even partners like Jitan Ram Manjhi and Mukesh Sahani will not leave NDA. BJP is the party who can form a government where they are not in majority, we have examples like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Manipur and Goa. In Bihar they are already in majority, “said Diwakar.
It would be interesting to see in the coming days how the functioning of the government goes ahead and how Nitish will handle the pressure in change scenarios when his party JDU is on the third number in assembly.
