Nitish Kumar's Re-election Bid: Bihar (2020)

A combination of circumstances(परिस्थिति) is helping Nitish kumar stay ahead(आगे रहो) in the race(दौड़) for Bihar.

 

In the last 15 years , Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been on the winning side in all elections, barring(को छोड़कर) one to the Lok Sabha in 2014. In 2005 and 2010 he led the NDA to power in the State In 2014 he parted with the BJP, refusing to accept Narendra Modi as the candidate for Prime Minister, After his party, the Janata Dal (United), fared(प्रदर्शन किया) badly electorally, he vacated the CM’s post for Jitan Ram Manjhi, A Dalit leader, in political manoeuvering(योजना) that went out his control soon. He reclaimed the chair and went on to fight and win the 2015 Assembly election in alliance with the RJD, the congress and other small parties on the social justice6 plank. He had bitterly fought RJD founder Lalu Prasad since his exit in 1993 form the Janata Dal mother ship in which they both had cohabited of long. On July 26, 2017, he snapped ties(संबंधों) with the new partners and returned to the BJP’s embrace(help) . Helped by an amoral(नीतिहीन) agility(चपलता) and elastic(लोचदार) ideological moorings, Mr. Kumar has outperformed expectations of political survival that his thin social base could yield in the normal course.

 

Mr. Kumar’s claims of being a changemaker in governance were always exaggerated(अतिरंजित) through he did manage to pick up(उठाना) the shredded(कटा हुआ) pieces of governance in the State in the initial years. Marginal improvements in education, health and local bodies allowed him .

Some self-congratulatory(आत्म-बधाई) indulgence but the State’s halting response to the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed glaring failures of governance. Bihar singularly failed in managing the return of nearly 25 lakh migrants form other States in the wake of the outbreak and abrupt(आकस्मिक) lockdown of the economy. Testing levels are very low in Bihar, and Mr. Kumar has remained aloof. But the crisis has only reinforced him politically as things stand(जैसी अवस्था है) now The widespread mobilisation (लामबंदी)against the CAA forced the BJP to announce in January that he would continue to lead the NDA and the alliance remained intact. The fate of many regional patners of the BJP in the past - for instance, form leadership to secondary status as with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, or even to extinction(विलुप्त होने) as it happened with Janata rumps(few remaining members) in Gujarat - could have befallen the JD(u) too . A succession of one crisis after including the Chinese aggression now has forced the BJP to abandon any plans it may have had to relegate(बाहर निकाल देना) Mr. Kumar to subsidiary role in the State. With the BJP and the JD(U) clinging to each other, the social combination of large sections of the upper and middle castes and Dalits that propels them appears to be formidable . The opposition is in chaos(अराजकता) His father in Jail, siblings playing spoilers(विफल) and party seniors sulking(नाराज) Tejashwi Yadav is struggling to steer the RJD. The congress lacks (का अभाव)vision, strategy and leadership Mr. Kumar may not even need to use all his manipulative (जोड़ तोड़)skills this time. Friends of foes, he is one step of them all.