dailyO
Politics

Politics behind Nitish Kumar's decision to support Ram Nath Kovind as BJP's President choice

Advertisement
Arindam De
Arindam DeJun 22, 2017 | 17:45

Politics behind Nitish Kumar's decision to support Ram Nath Kovind as BJP's President choice

Nitish Kumar, the game-changer?

No, the comment is not in reference to the upcoming presidential elections and Nitish's decision to support NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind. Despite the news time, news print and expert opinion being invested in it, the outcome seems to be done and dusted, bar any last minute developments. 

The NDA with JD(U), AIADMK, BJD, TRS and YSR Congress basically means something just above 62 per cent electoral votes and numbers cannot be argued with. The opposition candidate will serve one and only one purpose - a show of unity.

Advertisement

This show of unity was an idea floated, nurtured and put into effect by various opposition leaders, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was one of the major driving forces behind this idea. That he has decided to support the BJP and NDA candidate, when he does not seems to have any immediately visible political compulsion, demonstrates once again the age old adage that nobody is a permanent friend or enemy in politics.

The opposition parties, especially the RJD, fear that Nitish is preparing to ditch the mahagathbandhan in Bihar and seems set for a national role in 2019 — although in much changed circumstances.

What may have forced Nitish's hand was probably laid out before us in the last few months. The Bihar CM is an astute politician to say the least and coalition partner RJD's members going to press, calling him names like "minority CM" etc, have not gone down well with him.

Then there was this string of RJD potshots at the Bihar CM, including Rabri Devi suggesting that old guards should step down in favour of the "new generation" - read the Yadav scions might have nudged Nitish to take a relook at the prevailing flow of Indian politics.

Advertisement

That Nitish correctly gauged popular support for PM Narendra Modi's much demonised demonetisation move was vindicated in BJP's sweeping triumph in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. That the BJP win in UP had a large chunk of Dalit votes would not have gone unnoticed too.

Dalits and mahadalits formed the basis of Nitish's very successful social engineering in Bihar and any shift in loyality in that votebank may affect his future prospects.

ram_062217052559.jpg
Ram Nath Kovind is ex governor of Bihar.

Now for a piece of political blasphemy - if you remove the claddings - parties, ideologies, etc - the persona of Nitish and Modi bears some similar characteristics - both are strong leaders, both are committed to providing a good administration and are at times overbearing in their control of their respective parties and government machineries - sometimes to the point of dictatorship. But then every strong leader in world politics, historically, has been dubbed a "dictator" at some point of time.

Nitishji is a big name in Indian politics; he demands and gets star treatment. He got it while he was in the NDA and he gets it from the opposition parties too. Probably he deems that NDA's chances for retaining power in 2019 is a foregone conclusion and he would like to be part of the winning combine.

Advertisement

JD(U)'s 1.89 per cent votes do not as much shore up the numbers for the NDA in the presidential polls, but is symbolic of a post-presidential poll scenario. JD(U) lending its support to the NDA will move many fence-sitters and we shall see it in the coming weeks.

The Opposition has just decided to field ex-Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as its candidate for the presidential polls. This probably demonstrates that it has finally decided to put up a show of unity, after the JD(U) snub. For now, Kumar is expected to corner less than 40 percent votes.

Not enough to put an Opposition candidate in Raisina Hills probably, but its the declaration of a common intent by the Opposition. A rallying point for all the anti BJP and anti NDA forces. The political division that we saw today, may very well be the basis of the two camps that face off in 2019. And Nitish Kumar may have delivered the decisive blow or will he have to contend with an Opposition candidate who hails from Bihar. We shall wait eagerly to see the outcome.

Once the presidential polls are over, we shall have to wait and see how the situation develops. Nitishji has played his cards well - even if the mahagathbandhan collapses in Bihar he can remain in power with the BJP on his side.

For the BJP, there is no better scenario than Nitish and JD(U) extending support to it - it would be one of the initial and probably one of the most important milestone in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. We shall see. 

Last updated: June 22, 2017 | 18:26
IN THIS STORY
Please log in
I agree with DailyO's privacy policy