Nitish Kumar, the incumbent Chief Minister of Bihar, is planning to vacate the CM chair and has already given a farewell speech at the birthday of Karpoori Thakur, the socialist politician who is regarded as the father of caste politics in India, especially the OBC politics.
“Karpoori Thakur Ji, as the CM, worked for the welfare of all sections of the society but he was removed from the post within two years. We too are working in the interest of all sections of society. Sometimes, some people get annoyed because of working in the interest of all sections of society,” said Nitish Kumar in an event held at the JD(U) headquarters, where the leaders were gathered to commemorate Karpoori Thakur on his birth anniversary.
The event was organised by Extremely Backward Class leaders of JD(U) because they see Karpoori Thakur as the leader who first started the campaign to give the so-called lower castes their share of power in the political space. Nitish Kumar too went in full-flow on identity and caste politics and said, “Since the first day of my coming into power in November 2005 several schemes were implemented to ensure the progress of the people belonging to the SC, ST, minorities, extremely backward classes and women. Some special initiatives were taken to bring the people living on the margins, in the mainstream of society. Women were provided 50 per cent reservation in the Panchayati Raj institutions to provide them adequate representation at the grassroot level.”
By comparing himself with Karpoori Thakur and with the statement that he can be removed from the CM chair any day, Nitish Kumar has given hints that he could be dumped soon because his party does not have the numbers in the assembly.
Nitish Kumar is so scared of criticism that a few days ago, the Bihar government declared ‘offensive’ criticism of the state government on social media sites as an act amounting to cybercrime. Kumar already holds a very strong influence over print and television media of the state and his administration is rarely criticised despite the rising cases of crime.
The only avenue people have for criticising Nitish Kumar was social media and a lot of people were demanding that Kumar should vacate the CM chair and it should go to a BJP leader. However, Kumar, obviously, did not like this and told the Home Department to issue a diktat against the online criticism of the government.
Nitish Kumar is trying all the tricks to remain the CM of the state for the last five years but at the same time, he knows well that BJP will now allow this. The saffron party has already sent Shahnawaz Hussain, who has an old rivalry against Kumar, to ensure that the Bihar Chief Minister is kept under the rug and could be removed from the CM chair if need be.