Could Nitish tender resignation and call for fresh elections in Bihar?

Ever since six JD(U) MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh jumped the ship to join BJP, the most popular face of the party, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, is not happy with his BJP allies. Kumar said that he has no desire to remain Chief Minister. “People are saying that the BJP wants the CM’s position. I do not care. I am not attached to the position,” said Kumar. 

As per a report by ANI, he also said that BJP can choose its own chief minister. “I had no desire to become the Chief Minister. I had said that the public had given its mandate and anyone can be made the Chief Minister, BJP could make its own Chief Minister,” said Nitish Kumar. 

Nitish also said that he had made his wish to not take CM chair known to the coalition, but there was pressure from the other side. “After the election results came, I made my wish known to the coalition. But the pressure was so much that I had to take up work again,” he said.

In the last few weeks, Nitish Kumar has repeatedly said that he does not want to remain the CM. However, it seems that he does not have a free hand in governance unlike when BJP was a junior ally in the coalition in the previous NDA government. Moreover, Kumar was very comfortable in working with Sushil Modi, who was his close ally and the Deputy CM throughout his alliance with BJP until the 2020 Assembly Elections.

He already expressed displeasure over Sushil Modi’s deputation to the Rajya Sabha and now after the defection of party MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh, he is miffed with the saffron party. Kumar might tender resignation from CM chair and pull out party’s support from the alliance government. The state might witness another assembly elections soon because it is very unlikely that JD(U) would go in alliance with RJD again. 

Much-like Nitish, KC Tyagi, the General Secretary of JD(U), too expressed displeasure over the defections. “The party has expressed its deep anguish, displeasure, protest on Arunachal Pradesh development. It is not a good sign of alliance politics. The partners should follow the ‘alliance politics’ as was practised during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure or being followed in Bihar for the past 15 years. The coalition partners should follow ‘Atal Dharma’ while running alliance government,” said KC Tyagi. 

Now, as JD(U) faces existential crisis amid fears being gulped down by BJP, Nitish Kumar has handed over the post of the Party President to Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, popularly known as RCP.

JD(U) was founded in October 2003 and is among several factions of the original Janata Dal, founded under the tutelage of Jayprakash Narayan. Until 2016, Sharad Yadav was the president of the party but Nitish Kumar became its most popular face and when Yadav rebelled, he was thrown out of the party and Kumar was made Party President. Now the trusted lieutenant of Nitish Kumar, RCP Singh, has been appointed as the Party President.