Bihar: Nitish Upsets BJP, Says he Will Continue as Chief Minister

Patna: After days of gossip in political circles, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday put to end all speculations that he may go to Rajya Sabha and dismissed the reports of his likely move to quit the CM's post. 

Kumar also kept silent on the demand of the leaders of his ally Bharatiya Janata Party to adopt the bulldozer model of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to control the increasing crime rates in the state.

At last, Kumar broke his silence over speculations that were doing rounds since last week as he denied reports of his possible resignation. Kumar claimed that he was surprised himself over reports published in this connection. “Aise hi chapta rahta hai, hum toh khud bhi dekh kar ashcharya chakit rahe jaate hai (Anything gets published, I myself get astonished by such news).”

Kumar said he hardly pays much attention to such reports. This is bound to embarrass the BJP leaders who were recently busy issuing statements that, for the first time, a BJP leader will become the chief minister of Bihar as Kumar will quit to go to Rajya Sabha.

Three days ago, several JD-U leaders, including two Bihar ministers, publicly dismissed the reports and described them as mischievous and rumours. The JD-U leaders also countered reports in the media about Kumar’s likely move to quit the chief minister’s post.

The claims suddenly started after Kumar reportedly told a few media persons last month that he has an unfulfilled desire to become a member of the Rajya Sabha. This has heated the politics over reports that the BJP will finally replace the JD-U chief as CM of the state.

Interestingly, BJP leaders were so upbeat over the reports that they floated the names of three party leaders for the top post to replace Kumar. Even a BJP MLA, Vinay Bihari, demanded that Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishor Prasad should be made the Chief Minister. Prasad is a senior BJP leader.

Political watchers here said that after the ruling BJP allegedly engineered a split of its ally Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) last month, it went on to fulfil its long-awaited dream of becoming the single largest party in the state Assembly, with all three VIP MLAs joining the saffron clan. Till March 23, the BJP was the largest party in the ruling coalition with 74 MLAs; now, it has become the single largest party with 77 MLAs after three VIP MLAs defected to it in the 243 members House. On the other hand, Nitish’s JD-U has only 45 MLAs, and it is the third-largest party in the Assembly. Before the last assembly elections, Nitish’s JD-U used to have more MLAs than the BJP in the state Assembly.

After BJP emerged as the big brother, the saffron party leaders behaved differently, and Nitish Kumar was forced to play second fiddle.

In the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, RJD emerged as the single largest party with 75 MLAs. Now, the RJD has been pushed to the second position by the BJP. It also ended the hope of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, youngest son of ailing Lalu, to topple the NDA government with the support of VIP and another small ally, Hindustan Awam Morcha of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi.

About the BJP leaders’ demand to adopt the bulldozer model of UP to control crime, Kumar said the police have been doing their duty to prevent crime, and a zero crime rate is not possible. Kumar avoided reacting over the bulldozer model, saying the crime rate has declined in the state.

The BJP MLAs’ pressure on the UP bulldozer model for crime control has embarrassed Kumar, who has made repeated claims of ‘sushasan’ and ‘kanoon ka raj’ (good governance and the rule of law) in the state. His party MLAs have even countered their ally BJP, saying Nitish Kumar’s model is adequate to control crimes.

This issue came to notice following the district administration of Saran bulldozing a criminal’s building in Chapra town in Bihar after completing the asset attachment exercise. But a close aide of Kumar, Upendra Kushwaha, the president of JD-U’s parliamentary board, on Sunday expressed disagreement with the style of police action.

Kushwaha recalled that in 2005, when Nitish Kumar came to power in Bihar , crime was uncontrollable. Kumar’s government successfully controlled the crime rate and was lauded and praised for it. “Bihar has a Nitish model to control crime, and it will continue. There are different measures to control crime... demolishing buildings is not a good practice and it cannot be justified. Yogi’s model of crime control will not be implemented in Bihar,” Kushwaha said.

Till last year, BJP leaders were strongly stressing the adoption of the police encounter model of Yogi Adityanath to get rid of criminals and control the increasing crime rate in the state. It was not the first time that such a demand was made by the BJP in the state. Earlier, in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 too, some BJP leaders voiced support for elimination of criminals through police encounters in the state. They had said then that encounters are the best way to create a sense of fear among the criminals.

However, unlike in the past, BJP’s ally JD-U has now reacted strongly against such demands, claiming that only Nitish Kumar’s model is suitable for Bihar. JD-U leader and Minister Ashok Choudhary reportedly said, “Since last 15-16 years, Nitish Kumar’s model is in operation in the state and is successful.”