Bihar: Lalu's ‘Open Door’ Offer to Nitish Kumar Heats up Politics Ahead of Assembly Polls

Patna: Amid biting cold, cloudy sky and foggy weather in early January, politics is heating up in Bihar after Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad publicly made an offer to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, president of ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), a major ally of the Bharatiya Janata party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to join hands with him if he wanted to, saying that the “doors are open” for him.
 

Lalu Prasad also said that he was ready to forgive Kumar’s earlier mistakes of changing sides (Kumar had switched sides earlier by breaking his party’s alliance with RJD and joining hands with BJP to form the government). Earlier this week, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, had claimed that the doors were shut for Kumar, ruling out any tie-up with Kumar’s JD-U.

Even on Thursday, Tejashwi, widely seen as heir apparent of Lalu Prasad, was reluctant to say anything on his father’s “offer” to Kumar, but when the media repeatedly tried to take his view on the matter, he said that whatever “Laluji has
stated was for media people”.

Interestingly, none other than Kumar folded his hands with a smile on his face when the media sought his reaction over the RJD chief’s ’s offer. “What are you saying?”, was all that he said in response.

But this political development has further deepened the confusion over the next likely move of Kumar months
ahead of next Bihar Assembly polls this year. Local media has been full of speculation since the past week over whether Kumar would really change sides again.

Though leader of BJP, Kumar’s ally, have been claiming that the ruling NDA was united, the tension in the saffron camp is quite evident. One thing is certain that BJP leaders in the state are downplaying reports that Kumar may dump NDA and rejoin the RJD camp.

Several political watchers here said it was difficult to predict anything on Kumar’s next move. “Even senior JD-U leaders close to Nitish Kumar fail to read his mind and anticipate his political moves. This has been proven half a dozen times since 2010. Only he (Kumar) knows his next move, no one else”, a
political watcher told this reporter.

On Wednesday, Lalu Prasad, a seasoned politician, added fuel to the fire of speculation when he said that RJD would welcome and forgive Kumar if joined hands. “Our doors are open for him. He should also unbolt his gates. This would facilitate movement of people from both sides”, he reportedly said.

“It is a different matter that Tejashwi told the media that RJD would not align with JD-U and the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government will be ousted in 2025 Assembly elections. It seems a tough stand against Kumar, but Lalu’s stand matters more in RJD and his decision will be the final one”, said another political analyst.

This development assumes political significance, as there are reports that everything is not smooth between Nitish Kumar and top BJP leadership in Delhi. There are reports that Kumar and JD-U were “unhappy” over last month’s reported statement by senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a media event that it was not yet decided who would be the face of NDA in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. He was responding to a question whether Kumar would be the “face” of NDA or if BJP would adopt a strategy similar to Maharashtra last November, where it changed the face of Chief Minister after the poll outcome.

Shah’s widely reported statement that “we will sit together and decide over the issue” had raised a flutter in political circles in Bihar, as ‘Brand Nitish’ and his face is considered “fit and suitable” for the Chief Minister’s post, as  reflected in the past two decades.

However, Nitish Kumar has changed sides repeatedly with RJD or BJP, but continued to remain Chief Minister despite the fact that his party’s seat tally in the Assembly was lower than BJP and RJD.

In this backdrop, political commentators feel that Nitish Kumar is a “political compulsion” for  both BJP and RJD, who have no choice because they lack a CM face and need the
support of Nitish’s vote bank.

Sensing a political challenge in the changing political situation, JD-U has been projecting Kumar as only CM face. On January 1,2025, senior JD-U leader and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar coined a new slogan “2025 se 2030, Phir se Nitish”. He said Kumar was the “only trusted face” for people of the state.

After Amit Shah’s reported statement in December,  JD-U had strongly asserted that there would be “no compromise” on the name of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the state NDA leader and chief ministerial face in the Bihar Assembly elections.

JD-U has made it clear that there were no “ifs and buts” over Kumar as next Chief Minister “after NDA returns to power” . This was followed by consecutive poster releases by JD-U with a clear message that Kumar would the NDA's chief ministerial candidate in the 2025 Assembly polls. JD-U's posters in Hindi read “2025 mein phir se Nitish Kumar","Jab Baat Bihar ka ho to Naam sirf Nitish Kumar ka ho","Ekjut NDA, Ekjut Bihar, 2025 mein phir se Nitish Kumar".

In fact, in recent days, it has been widely reported that the BJP central leadership was reluctant to name Kumar
as the Chief Minister face of NDA. This was cemented after Amit Shah's reported statement and no reaction from either him or Prime Minister Narendar Modi after that.

Soon after Kumar rejoined hands with BJP on January 28, 2024, JD-U began a campaign, projecting him as the next NDA Chief Minister.

The party said Kumar had made it clear to the BJP leadership in Delhi that his party would contest not less than 120 of the 243 seats in the 2025 Assembly polls and the remaining 133 seats were to be divided among BJP and its other allies in Bihar .

In the 2020 Assembly polls, the JD-U's tally had come down to 43 and the BJP won 74 seats. Keeping this bad performance of the party mind, which had weakened the position of Nitish Kumar in NDA, the party is gearing up to record a better performance in the forthcoming polls.

A JD-U leader recalled that Kumar's relationship with saffron party was long, and there was no doubt it was “bitter” as well.

“We all remember how Nitish Kumar cancelled a dinner with Modi -- who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister -- in 2010 over his disapproval of an advertisement featuring him with Modi and another one showing the aid provided by Gujarat government during the devastating floods that had hit Bihar in 2008. Three years later, in 2013, Kumar ended his 17-year-old alliance with BJP and, later in 2015, joined hands with the RJD and Congress, winning the Assembly elections and forming a government with their support.

In 2017, he dumped the Mahagathbandan, rejoined the NDA and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2020 Assembly polls with BJP.

The writer is a freelance based in Patna, Bihar.