Nitish Kumar is a step closer to his PM dream
The resounding victory of the Grand Alliance in the recent Assembly elections has left chief minister Nitish Kumar in an enviable position in Bihar. It has not only added to his political stature at the national level but also provided him a great opportunity to raise the bar of good governance set by him in his previous terms.
The Nalanda man has assiduously built his reputation as a leader with clean image after having pursued his policy of inclusive growth to rewrite the development history of India’s most underdeveloped state in the past ten years.
But his real test begins now. His performance in the next few years will determine whether he will be among the main challengers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to the next Lok Sabha elections.
Nitish has, time and again, emphasised that he harbours no ambition to become the prime minister. But it is unlikely that he will baulk at the prospect of facing Modi in the poll battle one more time if he is able to stitch up a grand alliance against the NDA ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, just the way he did in Bihar this year. True, it will not be an easy task for Nitish to pull off such a coalition given the personal ambitions of the different regional bigwigs such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Sharad Pawar. But he may well emerge as the most acceptable candidate to lead if a united Opposition front ever takes shape.
Even though Nitish belongs to a small party which will not have the adequate number of MPs to bolster his chances in future, he remains one of the few leaders who enjoy support in different parties, otherwise inimical to each other, such as the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena, and the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. All that, however, will depend on how Nitish runs the Bihar government until the next parliamentary polls.
Prior to the Assembly polls, he had made many lofty promises to the electorate in his state. Among other things, he had unveiled his vision for Bihar in the next five years through his ambitious seven-point nishchay (resolve). He will require huge funds to make it a reality by 2019-'20. Since he has already stressed that he would not go begging to the Centre for funds, he will have to pull out all the stops to augment the state’s own resources.
Besides, it is unlikely that the Modi government will ever grant the special category status to Bihar in keeping with Nitish’s long-standing demand. Under such circumstances, the chief minister may have to slog it out in his bid to give a fillip to Bihar’s development without expecting much from the Centre.
Many of his detractors believe that Nitish will also face problems due to RJD president Lalu Prasad’s possible interference in the day-to-day governance in future. As of now, it seems unlikely that Lalu will create hurdles for Nitish in near future. Given his experience in the past few elections, he should know that the prospects of his party in general and his minister-sons in particular might be hurt if he rocks the chief minister’s boat soon after the big mandate.
Nitish, therefore, does not have to worry about the stability of his government, and he can continue pushing his agenda for good governance without much trouble from his allies. He can hope to emerge as a consensus candidate of all anti-BJP forces at the national level only if he betters his own record of good governance.