Nitish Kumar: Due to the BJP‘s lack of majority in the Lok Sabha, its allies in the NDA have been negotiating assiduously for prestigious ministries at the federal level. It is understood that the allies, which included former Coalition members N Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, presented their demands during yesterday’s NDA meeting. Although there is now no official word on what they have demanded, intense negotiations are reportedly underway.
Early Life and Background
Born in 1951 in Bakhtiyarpur, Bihar, Nitish Kumar has held the position of chief minister since 2005. After the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party failed to repeat its 2019 victory of crossing the 272 majority mark on its own, Kumar dubbed “paltu ram” by his former allies has once again established himself as the most relevant face of the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
NDA Meeting Agenda
In the meantime, the Congress-led government in India is closely observing Nitish’s actions in an attempt to mend their strained relationship with Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and maybe topple the Narendra Modi government. To be precise, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has 16 seats, and Kumar’s JDU, which has 12, have supported the BJP-led alliance in the polls, giving them 292 Lok Sabha seats.
The unexpected reappearance of the Congress and the Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh has shocked the Modi-led party, which has won 240 seats in the legislature. In Uttar Pradesh, the two main opposition parties emerged victorious with 43 constituencies, a remarkable comeback from their 2019 performance that saw them win just six seats in the state. The INDIA bloc has 234 seats in total.
Returning to the “kingmaker” chief minister of Bihar is presently en route to Delhi, where he is scheduled to attend a meeting of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance to deliberate on the possible resurgence of the Modi government for a third term. Only he can decide if he will remain in the NDA this time, but in the interim, let’s take a look at his previous political adventures and flip-flops:
Political Journey of Nitish Kumar
Kumar’s swearing-in ceremony in 2005, the start of his five-year term as the Bihar chief minister, was a momentous occasion. It put an end to the RJD led by Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 15-year tenure. Prior to that, he served as the Atal Bihar Vajpayee government’s Union Railway Minister from 2001 until 2004.
Since his time as a student, Kumar, an electrical engineer from Bihar College of Engineering, has been involved in politics. On the Janata party’s platform, led by Satyendra Narain Sinha, he won his first election to the state legislature from Harnaut in 1985. He became a member of the BJP in 1996 after taking Barh’s seat in the Lok Sabha. Nitish was also the chief minister of Bihar for a little more than seven days in March 2000, before to his full tenure.
Nitish Kumar Ends 17-Year Partnership in 2013
The 17-year partnership between JD(U) and the BJP, which was its ruling coalition partner at the time, was broken up by Nitish in 2013. In 2017, he rejoined the grand coalition that included the RJD and Congress, but he later returned to the NDA. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-JD(U) alliance defeated the opposition in a landslide, taking 39 of the 40 seats in Bihar. Together, they also triumphed in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections.
The coalition broke up once more in 2022, and Nitish created a grand alliance with Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD as his deputy. Following an 18-month hiatus, the JD(U) rejoined the NDA in January, cutting links with the grand alliance model and taking the oath of office as the chief minister of Bihar once more on January 28.