Nitish Kumar’s Political Flip-Flop:Â It is severe winter in Bihar at the moment, but the politics of the state is heating up. The reason for this is that discussions are in full swing about Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) President Nitish Kumar changing sides once again. Discussions about Nitish leaving the Grand Alliance are taking place at a time when Lok Sabha elections are going to be held in the country in the coming few months. Along with the Grand Alliance, Nitish is also a part of the opposition’s India Alliance.Â
The kind of statements made by Nitish Kumar in the last few days or the steps taken by him. He has started hinting that a big ‘game’ is going to happen in Bihar soon. Nitish Kumar is also not participating in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’. Not only this, but recently while paying tribute to former Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur on his birth anniversary, he had targeted dynastic politics.
Discussions of going with NDA
However, this will not be the first time that Nitish Kumar is breaking an alliance and joining hands with another party. He has already joined hands with left parties like NDA and Grand Alliance. This time too there are discussions that Nitish Kumar is going to go with the BJP led NDA. He has already formed government with BJP. In such a situation, let us know when Nitish Kumar has changed sides and this time due to which thing has he become disillusioned with the Grand Alliance.
How many times has Nitish changed sides?
Nitish Kumar, who entered politics through student politics in 1974, has changed sides five times so far. Nitish Kumar, who was a part of Janata Dal, changed sides for the first time in 1994. Nitish formed Samata Party in 1994 along with socialist leaders George Fernandes and Lalan Singh. Samata Party formed an alliance with the Left parties for the 1995 assembly elections. But when success did not materialise, he left the Left parties and joined the NDA.
In 1996, Nitish Kumar made a comeback for the second time and joined NDA. Nitish’s journey with the BJP-led NDA continued till 2010. Then , seeing the growing stature of Narendra Modi in NDA, in 2014 Nitish Kumar contested the Lok Sabha elections alone. Two seats came to his account and then Nitish, who became CM in 2010, left the post of CM. In 2015, he made a comeback for the third time and formed a grand alliance. He also became CM just before the assembly elections.Â
He ran the government with the Grand Alliance till 2017. During this period he held the post of CM. However, then Tejashwi Yadav’s name came up in the IRCTC scam and Nitish made a comeback for the fourth time and decided to join BJP. When JDU got 43 seats in the 2020 elections, they started facing problems. After this, he made a comeback for the fifth time in 2022, left BJP and again joined the Grand Alliance.
What is the reason for Nitish’s disillusionment?
However, now the question arises that why Nitish, who will join the Grand Alliance in 2022, has become disillusioned with it within a year and a half. After all, what are the reasons due to which Nitish Kumar is preparing to change sides for the sixth time?
Angry at not being made India convenor: Opposition has formed India alliance for Lok Sabha Elections. This includes the parties of the Grand Alliance (Congress, RJD, JDU and Left parties). Nitish Kumar hoped that he would be made the coordinator of the India alliance. But this did not happen, due to which there were reports of his being angry.
Delay in India seat sharing: Nitish believes that elections are to be held in a few months, in such a situation the India alliance should do seat sharing in every state as soon as possible. Out of 40 seats in Bihar, Nitish wants 14-16 seats. There is no consensus on this either. If this happens then Congress will get 6 seats, which is not acceptable to it.
No future in India alliance: Nitish has been the Chief Minister of Bihar eight times. However, Nitish knows that even if the India Alliance wins the elections and he is given a place in the central leadership, he will not leave the post of CM and take it. They do not see their future in India.
Sensing the atmosphere before the elections: With the construction of Ram Mandir,, Nitish Kumar has come to know that the wind is blowing towards BJP. They feel that BJP will win and the victory of India alliance is difficult. In such a situation, Nitish is assuming that if BJP cannot be defeated then it would be better to go with it.Â
Opportunity to improve the image: As soon as BJP joined the Grand Alliance, BJP accused Nitish Kumar of being with the corrupt. Scam cases are going on from RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav to Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav. In such a situation, Nitish may believe that his image should be cleaned before the elections.
