Bihari Vikas Purush on his way out

Nitish Kumar seems to be the first casualty of the aftershock from the massive election mandate of 2014. He has resigned taking moral responsibility for the drubbing that JDU got in the elections. So thorough has been the defeat, that in many constituencies across Bihar, JDU has been relegated to the third place and RJD has emerged as a force to reckon with.

But the analysts who are judging this move as part of media theatrics are making a gross miscalculation. Nitish Kumar unlike Arvind Kejriwal is a seasoned politician and his move comes as a result of rumors that his MLAs might be deserting him to join the BJP. Also, there is pressure from Sharad Yadav (the JDU leader in Lok Sabha who lost the elections) to get a majority in the Bihar assembly so that he can at least attempt to enter the parliament through the Rajya Sabha. Also, interestingly although Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation to the Governor, he refrained from advising him to hold fresh elections. This gives a strong indication that the move was aimed at galvanizing party support.

This strategy has seemed to work as the MLAs rallied behind Nitish Kumar and he got to pick the new CM of the state. Jitan Manjhi, a Mahadalit leader was chosen as the new CM aiming at consolidating the Dalit votes that it lost to the BJP in the parliamentary elections. It is said that Jitan Manjhi comes from the poorest of the poor Dalit caste. Why does a Vikas Purush need to play a Dalit card?

Consolidation of Muslims, Dalits and Mahadalits into the JDU fold was the primary motive of Nitish Kumar when he broke the alliance with BJP last year. This move backfired after Modi himself played the Dalit card and the development card in tandem. Also, RJD took away the Muslim votebank.

A Mahadalit CM seems like his masterstroke before the Bihar assembly elections. The rumor that JDU might form an alliance with the RJD seems very bizarre and if it happens, the alliance will become a formidable force to reckon with for the BJP. It is the vote split between the RJD and the JDU which helps BJP.

This story is still breaking and it would be premature to make any predictions at this point but the interesting take-away from these election results have been the re-entry of Caste politics in Bihar.