Nitish Kumar's Mission Delhi: Is he three years late?

About a month after snapping ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was in the national capital to hold discussions with the opposition leaders in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In the first leg of his meeting, Nitish met senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to thank him for extending support to the new coalition government in Bihar.

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Asianet Newsable has reached out to several political experts to understand what role the Bihar government would play against Nitish's friend-turned-foe Narendra Modi.

This is the second time that the Bihar chief minister walked out of the coalition with the BJP. Prior to this, he exited the National Democratic Alliance in 2013, just after Narendra Modi was appointed as campaign committee chairman of the BJP at Goa by then-party president Rajnath Singh.

'Nitish sees himself as consensus face of Opposition'

Dr Sanjay Kumar, Professor and Co-Director of Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), said: "If you look at the political developments in Bihar in the last one month, Nitish has made it clear that he is thinking of foraying into national politics. He is looking at himself as the consensus face of the opposition parties, and in that series, he is visiting Delhi to hold discussions with the opposition leaders."

It should be mentioned that Nitish Kumar's JDU has repeatedly ruled himself out of the reckoning to be the prime ministerial candidate in 2024.

On being asked about the reason for such a statement, Dr Sanjay stated: "Nitish Kumar himself would not say that he is the face of opposition parties, and if his party members start projecting him as the face, then his legitimacy would be reduced. He wants to create an aura where the other opposition leaders would say Nitish should lead the opposition bandwagon."

'Nitish Kumar is around three years late'

Rasheed Kidwai, political analyst and visiting fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said, "His (Nitish) Delhi visit is political in nature because there has been a change in government (alliance partners) in Bihar, and 2024 Lok Sabha elections are inching closer. So there has to be some kind of discussion to be held for the future course of action. Because on one hand there is a Congress party, which is not in a position to dictate or lead any kind of front and on the other hand many regional parties are scattered."

"Nitish Kumar has seniority factor, ability to mobilise support base and speaking Hindi are added advantages. Many people in the political circles think that the Congress may beat him to the hill, and then he will reach out to the parties like BJD, TMC, YSRCP, and TRS among others," Rasheed said.

The political analyst was of the view that Nitish should have done this exercise in 2019 only.

"After all, what the opposition has to do is reduce the BJP tally by 70-70 seats. If NDA is stopped at 200+ there would be a lot of problems for the BJP to form the government because no regional party would come with them," Rasheed said.

"He is an astute politician and understands that he is heading towards a dead end. What he should have done in 2019 to take the leadership of non-NDA parties, he is around three years late, but still, he is giving it a try," Rasheed added.

'UPA is in search of a person who can build consensus'

When asked whether Nitish Kumar wanted to be United Progressive Alliance chairperson or the prime ministerial face of opposition, Political Data Scientist Ashish Ranjan said: "There is a possibility of both -- he wants to become the UPA chairperson and the face of the united opposition. Whoever becomes the UPA chairperson, he/she must have more say in becoming the prime minister. To become the chairperson of UPA, you need to have a larger consensus."

"The current UPA is in search of a person who can build consensus among the opposition parties, and Nitish has plus points like he has a socialist background, has a good rapport with all political leaders, his personal integrity is a high and comparatively counter attack against him is low, and he also speaks Hindi well. These are the things that give him advantages against other leaders," he said.

Ashish highlighted two issues that could be a problem for Nitish if he is chosen as the face of the opposition unity --- employment and accommodation of regional satraps.

"Until and unless youths do not mobilise, it would be very difficult to destroy the dominance of the BJP. The remaining two years would be crucial for him as to how he performs in providing jobs to them. That's because the 2020 Bihar Vidhan Sabha election was against him as he did not do well in addressing the unemployment issue."   

"He would also have to keep TMC, SP and BSP as neutral anti-BJP forces so that a post-poll alliance can be stitched. Strengthen UPA and accommodate regional leadership would be the biggest challenges for Nitish Kumar," he added.

'Opposition unity is the need of the hour'

Syed Nazam, General Secretary of Bihar JDU, said: "Our leader Nitish Kumar will meet all the like-minded leaders and bring them on one platform with an intention to defeat BJP in 2024. He will also visit other states and make aware the people about the misdeed that the BJP has done with the common man."

"Coming together of all opposition leaders is the need of the hour," Syed Nazam said.  
 
Besides Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar would meet his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Pawar, Om Prakash Chautala, Kumaraswamy and Naveen Patnaik. Uddhav Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee had telephoned him after exiting the alliance with the BJP.