From Patna
With the Uttar Pradesh (UP) results finally returning Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government to power, the prolonged turf war between ‘UP me sab baa’ (UP has everything) and ‘UP me kaa baa?’ (What does UP have’), is finally over. All eyes are on Bihar now albeit assembly elections are far away. Why? Because after UP, the focus seems to have shifted towards ‘Ab Bihar me kaa hoi?’ (What will happen in Bihar now?).
After BJP’s impressive victory in Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party is likely to impose its Hindutva politics more aggressively in Bihar which has so far treaded cautiously in embracing it completely.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD (U), which is sharing power with BJP in Bihar, is likely to find it quite tricky to contain the latter’s aspiration of making the state another hotbed of Hindutva politics.
“Nitish Kumar has so far diligently tried to ward off moves at ‘saffronisation’ Bihar and successfully repulsed all such attempts by its numerically superior ally. The BJP, however, has more or less realised that Hindutva is the best antidote to the governance deficit – whatever it is – and the dispensation’s gross apathy to the plight of common masses, particularly after its overwhelming success in UP,” said a political analyst on the condition of anonymity.
And while BJP’s impressive victory in UP may have surprised many pollsters, the party will not hesitate to administer an “extra dose of Hindutva” to the body polity of Bihar as it is the only state in the Hindi heartland that has not been directly ruled by it so far.
That Hindutva politics will be played out on a more aggressive note became partially clear when BJP MLAs raised ‘Har Har Mahadev’ slogan inside Bihar assembly when the party started taking initial leads in the UP vote-count. And when the BJP finally registered an impressive victory by coming up trumps against the anti-incumbency factor, Bihar BJP MLAs were seen in the assembly rooting for a ‘bulldozer government’ in the state.
Now with the ‘Yogi Adityanath model of governance’ getting ‘fully’ vindicated by the UP electorate, it should not surprise anyone if Bihar’s ‘Sushashan Babu’ Nitish Kumar too faces the heat with his ally BJP demanding that he emulate UP’s model.
However, while the BJP will mount pressure on Nitish to concede more space to play its Hindutva card, there is a very little chance of the alliance between the two parties coming to a boil, more so in the near future. Nitish has smartly outmaneuvered BJP so far as he continues to insist on holding the caste census despite the saffron party’s disinclination for it.
How Nitish is important to BJP became clear when Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently called Nitish a “true socialist” and applauded him for not promoting family politics. The Bihar CM returned the gesture by thanking him. This only shows how strong the relationship is between the top leadership of the two allies.
However, it is also an undeniable fact that the BJP has understood quite well that Kamandal politics can very well outplay Mandal politics, so amply demonstrated by its victory in UP. The saffron party would surely be tempted to test the waters in Bihar.
Will Nitish shift to Delhi?
One of the theories doing the rounds in the circles of political pundits is this: Is Nitish Kumar considering a shift to Delhi? The Presidential elections is due.
The Bihar chief minister is virtually at the fag end of his political career. He’s been helming Bihar with or without BJP since 2005. Despite facing strong anti-incumbency in the state assembly elections and his party being relegated to the third position with 43 seats, Nitish once again assumed the post of chief minister. In fact, over the years, even before the polls are held, he has been declaring he would be returning to the CM’s chair irrespective of the number of seats won by his respective allies in the hustings.
Political analyst Kamal Kant Sahay says that despite the BJP’s laudable performance in four out of five states that went to the polls, the numbers are not stacked very much in favour of NDA in the Presidential elections. “So, Nitish should not be very much interested in the President’s post when the numbers are not sufficient enough to guarantee him the top post.”
Nitish had earlier said that he had not thought of contesting the Presidential elections. “I don’t know how such rumors come out in public. I never thought of contesting the election for the Presidential post,” he had said.
Speculation over Nitish contesting the Presidential polls kicked off after he met prominent political strategist Prashant Kishor in New Delhi recently.
The JD (U) had contested the polls in both Uttar Pradesh and Manipur against the BJP. The party failed to open its account in UP but emerged victorious at six seats in Manipur.
When UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had announced a new population control policy for the state, Nitish was not amused. Nitish is of the firm view that the state doesn’t need a population control law to bring down the fertility rate. He keeps reiterating that encouraging education among girls will produce the desired results.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had announced his state’s new population control policy that aims to reduce the population growth rate to 2.1 per cent over the next decade. The new policy incentivizes a two-child policy both for government employees and private citizens.
Earlier, Nitish had also opposed the National Population Register (NPR) and called for a debate on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA. He was the first NDA ally to oppose implementation of the NRC in his state.
However, since the BJP is in a buoyant mood after its latest electoral successes and feels upbeat enough to re-furbish its image, Nitish has a formidable challenge up his sleeves – that of keeping the trust of minority voters in him intact, and also preempting any threat to his chair by allowing BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, to operate freely in implementing their Hindutva agenda in so far as it does not make him compromise with his secular credentials and wean away Muslim voters from him.
Main/featured picture on top: Nitish Kumar with Kerala Governor Nikhil Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav/Wikipedia file photo
Very nice blog,