NITISH HAS THE KEYS

Trust the BJP not to be beset with the complacency that often takes its opponents unawares.

- Amitabh Srivastava

So even as it brought down a chief minister from a rival party in Maharashtra, its eyes are not off the ball elsewhere. Bihar, to be precise, where the party is trying assiduously to keep its ally, the sometimes-friendly-sometimes-moody CM Nitish Kumar, by its side. That's why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Patna to attend the Bihar assembly centenary on July 12, heaped praise on the historic decisions taken on its floor, notably the one by Nitish to give 50 per cent reservation to women in panchayati raj institutions.

Earlier, when BJP president J.P.Nadda was to formally announce Droupadi Murmu as the NDA presidential candidate, Modi called Nitish to ensure he was on the same page.

And on July 8, when the CM's office cancelled the transfer orders of 149 officers issued by first-time BJP minister (land reforms and revenue) Ram Surat Rai and the latter went into loud recriminations, deputy CM Tar Kishore Prasad rushed to his party colleague's home in Muzaffarpur to shush him.

Why is the BJP walking the extra mile for Nitish? "It's obviously not just about the presidential election," says a senior BJP functionary. "The choice before us is clear. With Nitish by our side, the prospect of scripting a repeat of 2019 in 2024 is far more realistic than with any misadventure of putting up a BJP CM." The NDA had won 39 out of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2019-and despite the Janata Dal (United)'s depleted vote and seat share in the 2020 assembly polls, the BJP will need Nitish's sheen for 2024.

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