Chirag Paswan’s spirited fight against Nitish Kumar has Amit Shah written all over it

Battleground Bihar-2020 is going to be a riveting powerplay between several political factions both within and outside the parties. Nitish Kumar, the proverbial underperformer of Bihar is now facing some stiff resistance from the new blood Chirag Paswan, and it looks like the latter has the backing of Amit Shah to take the Nitish Kumar cabal head-on.

The reason being, the parliamentary board of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has told its national president Chirag Paswan that it wants to contest in 143 of the total 243 seats in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

“We have nine members in the parliamentary board apart from Paswan. They have pointed out that the party should fight the election in 143 constituencies including all seats where the JD-U is contesting,” said LJP spokesman Ashraf Ansari on Monday.

However, the final call to go the rebellious route lies with Chirag Paswan who most certainly is looking the pull the trigger.

Nitish Kumar, who sees LJP as a threat, in a desperate counter-measure, brought Jitan Ram Manjhi in NDA to put a brake on Chirag Paswan’s aspirations. LJP has already expressed its displeasure in working with Nitish Kumar.

“Our simple question was is there any one thing that the Nitish Kumar government has achieved which can be used as a poll plank in this Assembly elections,” said a senior LJP leader.

Nitish Kumar, whose only aim is to remain seated on CM chair for another 5 years, has tried to strengthen hold on Dalit vote bank by bringing HAM in the alliance as well as corner LJP. He has already overcapitalized the reclassification of some sections of the Dalit population as ‘MahaDalits’ and now the community has started moving to other parties.

The father-son duo led party is the key NDA ally; it contested 6 seats out of 40 in the state in the 2019 general election, and won all of them. Chirag Paswan has emerged as one of the most popular youth leaders of the state, with appeal cutting across the caste lines, in a state which is entrenched in caste politics, while the neighbouring UP opted for a change and voted for Hindutva.

According to the sources in BJP, party president J.P. Nadda had even advised LJP president and MP Chirag Paswan to tone down his attacks on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar but it seems like the battle-lines have been drawn and Paswan is betting on himself to take down a defeatist Nitish Kumar.

LJP’s transition from Ram Vilas Paswan to Chirag Paswan has been flawless. The deep-baritone Chirag Paswan has turned the party on its head and LJP no longer relies on the caste politics alone. Paswan is not afraid to speak his mind on the injustices in the Bihar political system under Nitish and that makes him one of the sharp and shrewd politicians around.

However, if one looks at the chain of events that has led to Paswan’s rogue nature against Kumar, one can figure out that the Union Minister Amit Shah had taken into these considerations a long time ago when he promoted Nityanand rai to the post of Minister of State Home (MoS) in Bihar and simultaneously gave Paswan a free hand to carve a new identity for himself.

While the cabinet was being formed in Bihar, Shah had planted his leader Nityanand Rai as the MoS Home and laid the foundation of a new face that could be used at the opportune moment.

And now the party has appointed MoS Home Nityanand Rai as the president for the party’s election-steering committee in the run-up to the Bihar assembly polls. Besides Rai, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has been appointed as the Chairman of the election campaign committee. Senior BJP leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain have been given the charge to assist Prasad.

Giving Nityananda Rai a prominence in national politics whilst bringing the laws like CAA and UAPA was Amit Shah’s strategy to further enhance his image. Now, by making him the head of the Election Steering Committee, the party has tried to converge the OBC and Yadav voters of Bihar with him and ultimately BJP.

BJP is steadily projecting these strong leaders as a viable alternative to Nitish’s insipid regime. Kumar, because of the TINA (There is no alternative) factor so far has been complacent about his chances and therefore isn’t even making attempts to woo the voters. His body-language looks timid and it seems like the ‘Sushasan Babu’ has taken his rallying poll call, ‘Kyu karein vichhar, thike to hai Nitish Kumar’ rather too seriously.

BJP’s very own ‘Vibhishan’ Sushil Modi has been given the cold-shoulder and rightly so, amidst the upheaval happening in the state. Paswan is coming for the giant-kill and if everything falls in place, Amit Shah’s masterstroke will lead to the fall of one of the oldest Titan in the Bihar politics.