#dnaEdit: Why Nitish Kumar's national ambition may become a non-starter

Placing the cart before the horse

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has thrown enough hints in recent days of his ambitions of emerging as a national counterweight to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But by throwing his hat into the ring before political parties can come together on a cogent national platform and with a common minimum programme, Nitish is, to borrow an old aphorism, placing the cart before the horse. The model of an emergent leader supported by regional satraps worked in the case of Morarji Desai and, later, VP Singh. But those were the times when regional politicians were yet to realise their relevance and influence on the national stage. The United Front governments of 1996-98 and the coalition governments led by the BJP and the Congress in subsequent years changed all that. Regional parties have emerged as credible alternatives to national parties, at least in their home states. Today, Nitish is just one among many leaders like Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, and Rahul Gandhi of the Congress. All of them are positioning themselves for pole position in 2019. 

Clear message sent

By assuming the post of national president of his party, the Janata Dal (United), Nitish is sending the message that he will henceforth play a larger role in national politics. To grow a national footprint for the JD(U), Nitish has also initiated merger talks with Ajit Singh, who commands a following in Western UP, and Babulal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha. Nitish has also called on all non-BJP parties to come together against the ruling party, stating that separate contests will not work in the 2019 elections. For a man who was allied to the BJP for nearly 20 years, Nitish’s opposition to the BJP can hardly be ideological. He seems to be appealing to the survival instincts of politicians, which in the end will only boil down to crass opportunism. Till date, a third front has not emerged because there is no common ground that these parties have been able to reach on matters of social, economic and political importance. Nitish would stand a better chance of uniting the Opposition, if he can convene a forum to discuss alternative politics, but even this is easier said than done.  

Congress not amused 

Understandably, Nitish’s attempts to emerge as the lodestar of the Opposition has not gone down well with the Congress which reminded Nitish that unlike the JD(U), the Congress has a pan-India footprint. The Congress, on its part, has also shunned the  pretension of being India’s pre-eminent party by entering into state-level alliances with the JD(U) and Lalu Prasad’s RJD in Bihar, the CPM in West Bengal, and the DMK in Tamil Nadu, where it had to settle for a much smaller share of seats. There is some anxiety in the Congress about Rahul Gandhi’s future if Nitish were to upstage him in national politics. But unlike Nitish, who seems to be in a hurry to forge his national alliance of parties, the Congress is taking a more measured approach. At the moment, no burning political issue has emerged for opposition parties to launch a broad front against the NDA government at the Centre in the manner that corruption became the central theme against Congress governments in the 1970s, 80s and the UPA government in 2014. The bankruptcy of the Opposition is also in evidence in Parliament where it has resorted to mindless disruption rather than debate to pin down the Centre on its failures. Nitish is, no doubt, a formidable politician and an able administrator. But his desire to enter the national stage through loose alliances with like-minded parties looks a non-starter.