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appears to have some element of truth. bound to take advantage of his vulner- patronising anti-social elements in the
But, how can this logic be accepted ability. The party is facing difficulty in state. People give credit to Kumar for
when he is in the ruling of the state for finalising the candidates of parliamen- the brought the state to the stage where
over one and half decade? tary elections owing to the demand it could join the race of development.
In an attempt to balance the equa- from JDU for more seats. It is causing His image as the man of develop-
tion which is changing fast in the wake irritations to the state leadership which ment made him able to win an election
of 2019 elections, the Bihar chief min- considers the demand as exaggerated. in which he had his fierce enemy Lalu
ister installed his confidant and former It is the confidant of BJP that they would Prasad by his side. He had successfully
journalist Harivansh Narayan Singh as win the election on Prime Minister forged a social equation to give the
the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha. Narendra Modi’s image. It hardly mat- much required stability to the state.
His success in doing so has proved that ters for the party whether Nitish stays Kumar could not continue with the
he has some clout among the non- with them or not. arrangement and deserted the Maha-
Congress and non-BJP chief ministers. gathbandhan (alliance) that was formed
Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik The incident to provide a national alternative to BJP.
obliged him by supporting JDU candi- He himself was being seen as a poten-
date Harivansh Narayan Singh despite forced Manju tial candidate for the post of prime
the fact that he would be facing BJP as minister.
its main opponent in assembly and par- Verma to step Nitish Kumar has also effectively
liamentary elections in his state. down from her put down the fire that had broken
However, this clout will hardly work out of Srijan scam which involved
in the state. His falling image has made post immediately embezzlement of huge government
him vulnerable to all sorts of bargain though Bihar Chief funds. The scandal with the patron-
in the party and outside it. The BJP is age of bigwigs and many heads were
Minister Nitish expected to roll off. However, noth-
Kumar had tried to ing of the sort happened and Kumar
• image at stake Manju Verma’s resignation in seemed to have controlled the damage.
rape scandal may hurt Nitish Kumar’s image shield the minister However, the Srijan Scandal severely
dented his image. The scandal reduced
Kumar’s bargaining power. He does not
The future have any scope in the opposition camp
His political rival Lalu Prasad is in either because Tejaswi Yadav is com-
jail and Nitish has quelled dissidence pletely opposed to his entry in his party.
within the party. But his calculations He has asserted more than once that
are now in jeopardy as he will have to he could not be accommodated in the
struggle hard to put his development Mahagathbandhan. Left with only one of
plank on track. This is necessary be- option of staying in the NDA, Kumar is
cause he is left with no time to jump trying to influence the equation within
into the campaign for 2019 polls. Bihar the BJP. However, his main supporter in
would be one of the sites where a fierce the BJP, Arun Jaitley, is unwell and not
battle is to be fought. The state is not being able to do much. By putting Hari-
only important in terms of numbers but vansh in an important office, Kumar is
also for the political equations that has hoping to influence the BJP leadership.
developed nationally. The Congress led But these politics may not work be-
Mahagathbandhan would try its best to cause both PM Narendra Modi and BJP
capture it. On the other hand, the BJP is president Amit Shah were never com-
trying to repeat its performance of 2014. fortable with him. The case of Srijan
This cannot be denied that after a Scam may also get a hearing very soon.
long period of poor governance and These all will add to another embar-
anarchic political scenario, Kumar had rassment to him. It would be difficult for
brought peace and stability. People him to maintain the image of Sushasan
were tired of the rule of Lalu Prasad. Babu in such an adverse situation. The
However, Prasad had certainly brought 2019 polls may prove to be a nightmare
a social revolution by empowering Dal- for the Bihar chief minister.
its and OBCs but failed in maintaining
law and order. He was also accused of letters@tehelka.com

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