NITISH IN A SAFFRON MAZE

On March 2, a day after celebrating his 73rd birthday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was sharing the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Aurangabad district and sounding a bit contrite.

- Amitabh Srivastava

“Hum gayab ho gaye thhe, par ab hum phir aapke saath hain. Hum aapko ashwast karte hain, ab hum idhar-udhar hone wale nahin hain, rahenge aapke saath (We had disappeared for a while, but now we are back with you. And I want to assure you, this time we’re staying put),” he said as both of them enjoyed a laugh.

Nitish’s U-turns are by now part of folklore, so a spot of self-deprecatory humour was just what the occasion needed, especially since there was a goodish chance that some old ice lingered that needed to thaw. The two leaders performed the rites of reunion perfectly: when BJP leaders welcomed Modi with a huge garland, he held out a hand to bring Nitish, too, under it.

The surface camaraderie aside, a touch of mutual wariness is not too hard to spot in the subsoil. Not a single seat in Bihar was announced in the first list of 195 candidates the BJP released the same day. With Nitish back in the fold, seat-sharing for the 40 Lok Sabha seats from the state will be by no means an easy task. Other than the JD(U), the NDA in Bihar includes smaller caste-based parties, which, too, will demand their pound of flesh. And each of them is enmeshed in a history of friction.

THE BJP MAY HAVE ALLOWED NITISH TO LEAD THE NDA IN BIHAR FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION, BUT ALL BETS ARE OFF AFTER THAT