For Ideology or for numbers?

What Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister of Bihar did last week in a span of one day is a complete chapter for all students of political science. Killing two birds with one stone even doesn’t fit here as Nitish Kumar achieved much more while carrying out his famous act of somersault.  Nitish Kumar abandoned the coalition with Lalu Prasad claiming that he has zero tolerance for corruption. The leaders had come together only twenty months back carrying the placard of secularism to stop the juggernaut of Prime Minister Modi in Bihar assembly. Nitish Kumar was well aware of the various corruption cases against Lalu Prasad Yadav; however that was not a cause of concern when the Grand Alliance was formed.

Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi fought a bitter war of words during the assembly elections. Had Nitish been serious about zero tolerance on corruption he could have sacked Lalu Yadav’s son Tejasvi Yadav when charges of benami (illegal) property were levied against him. The truth is that the high moral grounds for Secularism and Corruption have been used to win votes, launch new fronts, ditch friends and create new alliances.  The concern for the masses has never been of any importance.

Nitish Kumar was inching closer to Prime Minister Modi and first signs became visible to one and all when he showered praises on Prime Minister Modi for bringing in demonetization. Congress too joined the grand alliance as it knew dealing with Nitish Kumar who carried a cleaner image than Lalu Yadav could keep their sinking boat afloat, and it gave all the three stake holders a hope of forming an alliance with other regional parties that could give Narendra Modi a tough fight in parliamentary elections in 2019. Nitish Kumar had started getting a sense that he could be the Prime Ministerial Candidate of the new front. However, these twenty months were an eye opener for many. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was gaining strength with each passing day -winning state elections and toppling governments in other states. Nitish Kumar realized that his dream of even being a Prime Ministerial Candidate of united opposition was as far from reality. Hence he enacted a political drama whereby he resigned late in the evening and was sworn in the very next morning with the support of BJP.

Rahul Gandhi the Vice President of the Congress Party was caught unaware and stated that he was aware of the new alliance being forged between Nitish Kumar and BJP. However, he faced criticism from his own party cadre from Bihar that he remained inaccessible to them for over two months.

In 2013, Nitish Kumar had severed the alliance with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the day Narendra Modi was declared the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. His opposition was presented as a fight for the cause of secularism. However, due to the drubbing received in 2014, he was ready to bend his principles on corruption to tie with Lalu Yadav’s RJD. Now with allegations against Lalu Yadav’s son, who was his deputy in the grand alliance government, Nitish Kumar has decided to bury the hatchet with BJP, thus turning out to be the biggest gainer. His JDU with 72 seats was a smaller partner to RJD with 80 seats and the threat of Lalu Yadav staging a coup was omnipresent. Now, Nitish Kumar’s JDU is a senior partner to the BJP that has only 53 seats and hence that little sense of security has been achieved.

Ever since his active entry into politics, Nitish Kumar’s alliance decisions have been driven less by ideology but more by the pursuit of power.

Earlier, regional parties used to gang up against Congress, and now they were trying to build an anti BJP alliance with Nitish Kumar as the face of the alliance.  His aligning with BJP has not only dashed that grand hope of grand alliance but has also made BJP appear less communal to the dalit vote bank- All for a secure seat, and to secure votes in the upcoming elections.

Corruption has suddenly become an agenda for the chief minister whose sense of insecurity made him realize that having an alliance with Bhartiya Janta Party would make his life easy-being directly under the patronage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.