THE end of the Nitish Kumar era in Bihar has been signalled. Bihar’s longest serving Chief Minister has filed nomination papers to enter the Rajya Sabha in the next few days. He will soon be replaced, most possibly, by a candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is a component of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar. Most probably, Mr. Nitish Kumar’s son -- Mr. Nishant Kumar -- would be inducted into the new Bihar Government as a Deputy Chief Minister.

 

Bihar politics may not change drastically with this change, but faces will change, and so will the styles. In every likelihood, this would spell a positive change in national politics as well. There is no point in denying the fact that Mr. Nitish Kumar had achieved an iconic status in Bihar politics -- by continuing to stay as Chief Minister for long years and also by making it nearly impossible for any other person to occupy the coveted position. He played every political trick to stay at the helm, including switching of alliances at the last minute. At one time, he was also described to harbour the ambition to be Prime Minister -- which he tried to achieve by becoming Convenor of what has now come to be known as I.N.D.I. Alliance. And when he realised that game may prove politically fatal for him, he changed sides once again -- so much so that he got a popular epithet of ‘palturam’ (a man who changes sides often). Nevertheless, Mr. Nitish Kumar proved to be a great influencer of politics in Bihar and earned plaudits for his non-corrupt governance, his falterings notwithstanding.

 

Until he was there, the BJP could not think of putting its own Chief Minister in Bihar. Now that Mr. Nitish Kumar is moving to the Rajya Sabha, the BJP will have its own person in his place as Chief Minister. What role Mr. Nitish Kumar will play or get to play at the Centre cannot be fathomed at this stage. His health is on a decline for long, though his political savvy is still intact. But Bihar needed a change, and the BJP appears to have brought it through some of Mr. Nitish Kumar’s own close aides by slowly working up in his mind a need to switch to central politics. True, Mr. Nitish Kumar will have his own strong connect with Bihar, all right -- through his son and through his party. Yet, the BJP will now play a dominant role in Bihar politics -- and put into operation its own definition of development and growth. Once the BJP has its own Chief Minister in place in Patna, Bihar will get counted as one more State in the eastern sector to come under its control.

 

West Bengal, thus, will remain the only State in the east and north-east where the BJP does not have its Government. Of course, many observers feel strongly that the BJP has a decent chance of coming to power in West Bengal in the next some time when the State holds legislative elections. If the BJP wrests power from the Trinamool Congress headed by Ms. Mamata Banerjee, then its dominance in eastern sector would be complete. It is necessary to note that despite his stellar position in Bihar politics, Mr. Nitish Kumar could bring only a limited positive change in the State over the long tenure he enjoyed. He could not utilise his heft to lift the State out of the clutches of poverty -- which other Chief Ministers in the neighbouring States could achieve in shorter tenures (like in Uttar Pradesh). A possible reason for this could be that Mr. Nitish Kumar was more of a professional politician rather than a service-oriented public leader. His idea of political power had its limitations and he stayed confined to those. There is no doubt, however, that Mr. Nitish Kumar has been a man of great political substance -- representing a generation of young people influenced by policies, principles and politics of the late Jaya Prakash Narayan. He was a front-line young leader of JP’s ‘Complete Revolution’ and gained great traction on that account. That is still working, helping him not just in image but also in legacy.