In a significant development on Thursday, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies declared their final candidate lists for the upcoming Bihar election. According to the seat arrangement in NDA, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Janata Dal United (JDU) will contest on 101 seats each, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas) on 29 seats, while Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) will put up their candidates on six seats each.
Earlier, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar got miffed over many of the seats of his liking going into Chirag Paswan’s LJP (RV) kitty. JDU defied the seat arrangement on at least five seats allotted to LJP (RV) and declared its own candidates. These seats, reportedly, were Sonbarsa, Rajgir, Matihani, Gaighat and Morwa. Meanwhile, JDU is also putting pressure on the BJP to declare Nitish Kumar the NDA’s chief minister face.
Many political commentators are wondering about the large number of seats allotted to Chirag Paswan. They see it as a strategic move by the BJP to sideline Nitish Kumar after the assembly election. They note that during the 2020 assembly election, Chirag fought independently and fielded candidates specifically against JDU. This considerably dented the prospects of many of JDU’s candidates and played a significant role in reducing Nitish Kumar’s party tally to 43 MLAs, the lowest in its history.
According to a political analyst who preferred anonymity, “the BJP is exploring the possibility of making its own chief minister with the help of Chirag this time. In 2020, Chirag damaged JDU and helped in making BJP the biggest party in the NDA. Now he may offer the opportunity to manoeuvre in the post-poll scenario to install a BJP chief minister”
However, one reason the BJP is weighing its options is that it no longer fully trusts Nitish, as he switched sides at his convenience. There were also speculations around his deteriorating health. On the other hand, many political observers believe that JDU’s top leadership is too aligned with the BJP, which they fear could jeopardise the party’s future after Nitish Kumar.
Leader of the opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, on Wednesday, after filing his nomination from Raghopur, claimed, “Now, Nitish Kumar is not running JDU. JDU is being run by Lallan Singh, Sanjay Jha and Vijay Chaudhary. JDU does not remain with Nitish Kumar. These three leaders have been sold to the BJP, and they have destroyed Nitish Kumar.”
However, Nitish’s last-minute muscle flexing suggests that he may not be in the best of health, yet it doesn’t restrict his ability to assert his pound of flesh.
(Shams Khan is a Political Analyst based in Patna. The views are personal.)
