- Bihar has a leadership crisis as there is no viable option in sight to replace Nitish Kumar
- The nepotistic products of Big 3 of Bihar have not turned out to be even a pale image of their respective fathers
- The onus is on the BJP to finally take up the responsibility to provide Chandragupt to Bihar
Bihar, the most unfortunate state in the history of independent India is on the verge of one more crisis. The state which houses probably the best politically aware population is facing a problem, probably unforeseen in its history. The political equations in state are not able to churn out a leader which could lead the state in upcoming decades.
The plight of modern day leadership crisis in Bihar can be traced back to JP movement against Indira Gandhi government in 1975. It gave birth to multiple leaders out of which 3 remained relevant for the longest period in Bihar politics. From the last 3 and half decades, no matter which party came to power, it never had to think about finding a possible replacement in case the main leader is off duty. Mainly 3 politicians ruled the roster of Bihar Politics during the time when Bihar found it hard to get itself out of socialist clutches.
Lalu Prasad Yadav
Prasad is probably the most powerful and influential politician richotiating from the JP movement. Though he officially remained chief minister of state for 7 years only, he is said to rule the state for 15 years straight. Even when RJD came to power for a brief period in mid 2010s, it was termed as Lalu’s victory. In spite of him now being eligible to contest any election, the man is still one of the main faces of his party,which is now being led by his son Tejaswi Yadav.
Ram Vilas Paswan
He is probably the second offshoot of JP movement. Paswan is different from other prominent Bihari faces of the movement as he seems to have focused on increasing his clout at the Union government level. In his political career, Paswan handled 5 ministries at the central level. He was elected Member of Parliament for a record 9 times. Meanwhile, his party Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) also kept increasing its base. In the 2005 Bihar elections, Paswan emerged as kingmaker but refused to side with either Lalu or Nitish Kumar led NDA.
Read more: Ram Vilas Paswan – Many times he proved that he was the real kingmaker of India
Nitish Kumar
If Lalu was famous mostly at state level and Paswan at central level, Nitish Kumar can easily be termed as an ideal amalgamation of both. In spite of handling multiple portfolios under the Union government, Nitish decided to return to state in 2005. The bet turned out to be possibly the biggest one in political history as Nitish has been sitting on Bihar Chief Minister’s throne for the last 17 years.
Read more: Jarring signs from Bihar MLC elections; people love the BJP but loath Nitish Kumar
All 3 are done and dusted
All the aforementioned leaders were once under the same umbrella called Samata party. Paswan was the first to depart from the partnership. Later when Lalu developed enough political niche on which he alone could bank on, Nitish Kumar felt outcast and formed his own political party, now known as JDU. In a sequential manner, all three leaders maintained their hold on state politics for quite a long period of time.
In 2022, Ram Vilas Paswan has suffered a demise, Lalu Prasd Yadav;s political career is officially over while Nitish Kumar is inching closer towards the end of possibly his last instinct as Chief Minister. Now, the obvious question is who is going to replace the legacy of these heavyweights. Only a few alternatives come to mind. First look at how much the young generations of above leaders have been able to capitalise on the base provided by their Dads.
Read more: Bihar bypoll results have a hidden message for BJP
Chirag Paswan
Chirag Paswan is the son of Ram Vilas Paswan. In spite of being son of a politically powerful Dad, Chirag never came to limelight until he starred in a movie with Kangana Ranaut. Having enough experience in faking emotions, he entered into politics. Until his father was alive, he kept rotating himself in power corridors of both Delhi and Patna. Chirag’s greatest political triumph has been that he single handedly brought down Nitish Kumar’s acceptability in state.
In the 2020 Bihar elections, Chiragh Paswan headed LJP returned with only one seat. However Paswan was the reason why Nitish Kumar could not get 38 more seats as LJP acted as vote-snatcher on those seats. But, that seems to be the end of road for Chirag, The internal differences with some close members of Chirag’s family have led to bifurcation within the party and Chirag is not the favourite of party cadre anymore. His ethnic credentials also go against his political ambitions. Biharis have a propensity to choose locally born candidates. Chirag being son of a Punjabi Mom and born and brought up outside Bihar means that when push comes to shove, Chirag will be alone in his party.
Tej Pratap Yadav
Possibly the quirkiest hire of Lalu Yadav. Tej Pratap is all over the place. He is believed to be one of the most incompetent leaders in Bihar politics. Maybe his family saw something in him and got him planted as Health Minister in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet. Lalu and Co. thought that responsibilities would help him grow, but they had an exact opposite effect on ‘Teju Bhaiya’. Neither did his political career, nor his marriage take off. Today, unfortunately, he has just become a meme material.
Tejaswi Yadav
Even his detractors agree that Tejaswi has been the best product of nepotism in Bihar politics. The man is articulate and gets the nitty and gritty of game. However, multiple problems mire his chances of becoming the next big thing from Bihar.
For one, Tejaswi cannot shed the poor legacy created by his father. No matter what he does, where he goes, he will always be called ‘Lalu ke beta Tejaswi (Lalu’s son Tejaswi)’. Though, it should have been a matter of pride for him, unfortunately, it is hampering his growth as a politician. Lalu Yadav’s legacy has suffered so much dent that it is now next to impossible to improve his image. No matter how much he tries to not mention his dad’s name in elections, he is ultimately reminded of the same fact by either the people or a feeling that it’s his father’s Dias which he is standing on.
Read more: Message from Bihari voters is clear – no place for Bhai-Bhateeja politics in Bihar
Moreover, his vote-bank also does not promise much. His main vote bank is believed to be Muslim Yadav combo. But, as urbanisation is expanding its foot in Bihar, cracks are emerging in the Yadav vote bank. It is exacerbated by the fact that Yadav votes are constantly being poached by BJP. Similarly, Muslims are constantly being taken in by their fold by AIMIM.
Looking at the traditional vote-bank drifting away from his party, Tejaswi is trying to woo those castes who have not been in his favour. Tejaswi is seen hobnobbing with leaders of upper castes such as Bhumihar, Rajput etc. But building a vote can either be done by revolution or by carefully waiting for a decade or so. Tejaswi seems to be in no mood to do either of them.
JDU has no future
The word ‘United’ in Janta Dal United name is good enough evidence that there existed a division due to which the people who named the party tried to enforce ‘Unity’ through name. JDU was established in 2003 with the merger of the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal, the Lok Shakti and the Samata Party. Samata Party was the most legitimate section of this new political union as it contained heavyweights like Union ministers (of that time) George Fernandis and Nitish Kumar.
Read more: Nitish Kumar is cooking up the biggest U-turn in Bihar politics and BJP is ready
Even after its formation, only these two leaders brought in most attention towards the JDU. Sharad Yadav did show signs of occasional brilliance, but by and large he remained part of Margdarshak Mandal, as was evident from JDU remaining unflinched with his resignation. After the demise of former Defence Minister George Fernandis, Nitish Kumar became the sole credible face of JDU. From the last few years, the Party has tried to mentor Lalan Singh and Ajay Alok into leadership but they have failed to present themselves as replacement of Nitish in power circles.
It is widely believed that after Nitish Kumar relinquishes the throne, JDU will either disintegrate and cease to exist or it will merge with BJP. In that case, Biharis will have to look up towards BJP for providing replacement of Nitish Kumar. But, BJP has a problem in hand and one peculiar aspect of this problem is that only BJP can easily solve this problem.
BJP needs to groom a Chief Minister
From the last two decades, BJP has seemingly surrendered its interests in favour of Nitish Kumar. It relied on Nitish Kumar for a CM face and did not develop a second line of its own Chief Ministers. Sushil Kumar Modi did remain BJP’s face for quite a long time, but he was never a Chief Minister material to begin with. Same holds true for leaders like Giriraj Singh, Ravishankar Prasad as well. Giriraj has been a vote puller, but not a leader who is trusted to do monkey balancing at the top. Same holds true for Ravishankar Prasad, he is the intellectual face of BJP Bihar, but his profile is mainly suited for background roles when it comes to political manoeuvring.
It is not that BJP has a dearth of leaders to replace Nitish. There is ample time for next assembly elections in state. This time can be utilised to groom leaders like Shreyashi Singh, Shahnawaz Hussain, Nityanad Rai or Prem Kumar. All 4 leaders have proven capabilities in their respective domains. Moreover, they also fit in well among political dynamics of identity groups.
Read more: One of these 4 should be groomed by the BJP if they are serious about removing Nitish Kumar
The land of Chandragupt Maurya is facing a leadership crisis. This is time for BJP’s central leadership to take up the mettle of being a Chanakya and provide Bihar with Democratic version of Chandragupt.
