NITISH BACK TO THE FORE

On September 10, Janata Dal (United) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh once again raised the ‘Nitish (Kumar) for PM’ issue, a bogey that seems to raise its head every three months or so nowadays despite remonstrations by the man himself.

- Amitabh Srivastava

In a video posted on Twitter, Lalan Singh was seen addressing a gathering in Nalanda, the Bihar chief minister’s home district, to virtually claim Nitish had better credentials to lead the country than many others. “Aap sabon ne ek aisa neta iss desh ko diya hai jo poore desh ka netritva karne ke liye khada hai (You have given a leader to this country who is ready to lead all its citizens),” Lalan is heard saying.

The location, the Harnaut seat in Nalanda from where Nitish was first elected as an MLA in 1985, may suggest that Lalan was playing to the gallery, but the timing also points to the JD(U) creating some elbow room in the crowd that is the INDIA bloc, the 28-party national Opposition alliance that has come together to fight the BJP in the 2024 general election. A senior JD(U) leader also described this as a subtle reminder to the Congress that leadership of the Opposition alliance was by no means a pre-fixed affair.

Two weeks after Lalan staked his party leader’s claim, it was Bihar assembly deputy speaker and senior JD(U) leader Maheshwar Hazari’s turn to test the waters. But he seemed to be targeting the Bihar electorate as well as the alliance constituents. Hazari was intent on burnishing Nitish’s credentials for the top post, referencing his long tenure as Union minister, Bihar’s longest-serving CM and his “blemish-free (read ‘corruption-free’) record in every post”. Asked about Hazari’s statement, Nitish responded saying, “Ee sab hum nahin kahte hain, hum sabko mana karte hain (I don’t say these things, I tell everyone not to say such things). All (parties) will fight unitedly and a decision (about leadership) will be taken afterwards.”