NEW DELHI: The relations between Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, who was sworn in on Wednesday as Bihar chief minister for the eighth time in the last 22 years, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned sour once again.
In the last 20 years, the relations between Nitish and Modi have turned from love to hate to love and to hate again. Modi has been the most important factor behind most of the major political decisions which Nitish has taken since 2010.
Nitish has resigned three times in the last eight years in the midst of his tenure. And Modi has been the most important factor behind them.
Earlier, he had parted ways with the Janata Dal in 1994 and teamed up with George Fernandes to form Samta Party. He grew close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was made the railways minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government at the Centre in 1998.
2000-2005
In 2000, Nitish was sworn in for the first time as the Bihar CM with the support of the BJP. But he was forced to step down in seven days as they could not cobble up a majority. In 2003, he split the Samta Party, merged it with the Janata Dal and formed JD(U).
Unlike the other socialist leaders, Nitish praised Modi despite the 2002 Gujarat riots.
While inaugurating a railway project in December 2003 at Adipur in Kutch, as the then Union railway minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, Nitish sang paeans of Modi.
He called Modi a “potential national leader” and a “development-oriented politician”. He even exhorted the people to forget the 2002 riots and move on.
Nitish said, "I hope Narendra Modi won't be confined to Gujarat for long and the nation will get his services. I want to congratulate Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. A lot of work has been done in Gujarat, but a different image about the state and about Narendra bhai has been created outside the state. The work in the state isn't publicised the way it should be.”
He further said, "What happened (in 2002) was a blot. But it's not good if we remember just that and forget the other things that are happening. I congratulate Narendra Bhai. Gujarat's development is helpful for India and if Gujarat develops, the nation will also develop."
2005-2010
Nitish was sworn in as the Bihar CM for the second time in 2005. It was the first NDA government in Bihar with JD(U) and BJP as coalition partners.
Nitish’s JD(U) has won four assembly elections so far – in 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020. Except for in 2015, JD(U) contested as a pre-poll alliance partner with the BJP in all the other three assembly elections.
It was only between 2005 and 2010 that Nitish’s tenure as the Bihar CM was interrupted and without any major hiccups. Otherwise, all his three subsequent terms have been turbulent and he has resigned as CM in the midst of his stint in all these tenures – between 2010 and 2015, between 2015 and 2020 and now on the latest occasion on August 9. Modi has been a major reason behind all his resignations and the turbulent phases.
2010–2015
There was bonhomie between Nitish and Modi till 2009.
Nitish’s relations soured with both Modi and the BJP for the first time in 2010. It was in this year that Nitish’s dislike for Modi came to light for the first time. It was when the Bihar CM, who himself harboured prime ministerial ambition, realised that Modi, his then Gujarat counterpart, was surging ahead on the national political canvas and was his potential competitor.
He avoided getting associated with Modi. His political posturing was to keep his secular votes – who held Modi responsible for the killings of Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat riots – intact.
BJP's national executive meeting was being held in Patna in June 2010. Nitish had invited the senior BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, for dinner. The same day, full-page advertisements appeared in local dailies with Nitish thanking Modi for Rs 5 crore as flood-relief aid.
The advertisement also had a picture of Modi and Nitish clutching hands aloft. The picture was of a May 2009 rally of BJP-led NDA in Ludhiana. This same iconic picture showing bonhomie between the two turned out to be an eyesore for Nitish.
Nitish took strong exception to the picture and the ad. He abruptly cancelled the dinner and also returned Rs 5 crore to the Gujarat government.
Nitish’s next run in with the BJP took place in June 2013 and it was again over Modi. In its national executive meet in Goa, the BJP appointed Modi on June 9 as the chairperson of the party’s election campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Getting a clear hint that Modi’s stature within the BJP had been elevated and he would soon be projected as the party’s face for the next general election, Nitish dumped the BJP. Calling Modi a “communal” leader, he dropped all the BJP ministers in June 2013. He ran the minority government with the support of the left parties, independents and others.
Modi was indeed elevated as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in a meeting of the party’s Parliamentary Board that took place in Delhi on September 13, 2013.
Nitish’s first resignation as Bihar CM in the midst of his tenure happened after the BJP-led NDA won the Lok Sabha election and Modi was sworn in as the prime minister on May 26, 2014. Nitish tendered his resignation owning up moral responsibility for the defeat of JD(U) candidates in Bihar. JD(U) won only two out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the BJP was victorious on 22 seats. The NDA garnered a total of 31 seats.
He installed his one-time loyalist Jitan Ram Manjhi as the CM. However, he dislodged Manjhi and returned to the CM’s chair in February 2015.
2015-2020
For the 2015 Bihar assembly election, Nitish stitched a pre-poll alliance called the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) with Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress. It registered an impressive victory defeating the BJP with a massive margin.
Even though RJD emerged as the single largest party, it honoured a pre-poll understanding and accepted Nitish as the CM.
However, RJD soon started troubling Nitish in a bid to claim the CM’s post. Their leaders egged him on to shift to national politics because he was a PM material and to leave the CM’s post for the RJD.
It was also a time when the central investigative agencies were tightening their grip over several alleged irregularities of Lalu Prasad when he was the railway minister. His son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav was under the lens of the federal agencies in the IRCTC scam.
Trying to find an excuse to get rid of RJD, Nitish asked Tejashwi to come clean on the CBI’s allegations. With no clarifications coming, Nitish pulled out from the alliance with RJD over the issue of corruption in July 2017 and switched back to his association with the BJP.
2020 onwards
JD(U)’s performance fell dramatically in the 2020 Bihar assembly election. It won 43 seats as against 71 it had won in 2015. The BJP’s tally improved to 74 as against 53 it had won in 2015. The NDA formed the government even though RJD emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats.
Nitish again became CM as promised by the BJP in the pre-poll understanding. Luck favoured him twice. He had become the CM also when JD(U) had won lesser number of seats than RJD in 2015 as part of the pre-poll arrangements.
As in 2015, when RJD had started claiming the CM’s post, the BJP started doing so soon after Nitish took oath for the seventh time.
As is being speculated and alleged by several BJP leaders, Nitish has once again started nursing his prime ministerial ambitions. JD(U) alleged that the BJP was trying to split the party and poach its MLAs. It broke away its alliance with the BJP on August 9.
Union minister Giriraj Singh, who is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, said, “Nitish’s over-ambition has rekindled. But he will never be able to become the PM.”
According to the BJP leaders, Nitish and RJD have reached an understanding. Nitish will position himself as the opposition’s joint PM candidate against NDA’s Modi for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. While he would shift to Delhi, Tejashwi will succeed him in Bihar.
The relations between Nitish and Modi have again turned bitter.
