Nitish Kumar all set for a larger role nationally

Erasing forgettable memories of last year’s Lok Sabha polls, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar joined the elite league of leaders scoring a hat-trick as the Grand Secular Alliance, comprising the JD(U), RJD and Congress, swept the state elections. Latching on to the significance of these results, Mr Kumar left no one in the dark about his intention to rekindle his rivalry with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This newspaper earlier reported Mr Kumar was pushing for the merger of the JD(U) and RJD in a bid to become a stronger national player and galvanise opposition to the BJP. Both RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mr Kumar sought to forget that the Samajwadi Party had broken out of the Grand Alliance on the eve of the elections. “Our respect is undiminished for SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav,” Mr Kumar said Sunday after his Bihar victory.

The SP, however, got a drubbing in the state, with the party failing to even open its account. The Congress too has made a strong comeback in Bihar, where the party had been in the wilderness for long, winning 27 of the 40 seats it had contested. The Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party seem to be engaged in parleys for a possible seat adjustment or pre-poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh, that will go to the polls less than two years from now, sources said, adding Mr Kumar could take the lead to forge an anti-BJP national alliance in the near future. While the Janata Parivar was unveiled earlier with the SP supremo as its head before the Bihar elections, it was later kept in abeyance due to a sense of insecurity on the part of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

“The SP chief is getting on in years... and may be left with no option if his party faces heat in Uttar Pradesh but to throw his weight behind the leadership of Mr Kumar. The RJD chief being barred from electoral politics will be happy if Mr Kumar could help his two sons become established in politics and are groomed by the chief minister,” a source pointed out. With chief ministers Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal and Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal having already thrown their weight behind Mr Kumar, there is every possibility that a fresh attempt may be made to forge an alliance of regional parties with some working relationship with the Congress.