Bihar assembly election 2020: Will Nitish Kumar’s ‘last election’ gamble pay off for JDU-NDA alliance?

PATNA: On the final day of campaigning for the third part of the Bihar meeting election on November 7, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has surprised the state’s voters by saying that it will likely be his final election.

Nitish, who’s the JDU-NDA’s chief ministerial candidate, made these remarks whereas addressing a rally at Dhamdaha in Purnea district of Bihar on Thursday (November 5). 

“Today is the last day of the campaign. Polling will take place the day after tomorrow. This is my last election (ye mera antim chunav hai). All is well that ends well (ant bhala to sab bhala),” Kumar had stated whereas concealing his feelings behind his smiling face.

The crowds had been surprised into silence for just a few seconds, after which they erupted in applause for the 69- year-old chief who has dominated the state for almost 15 years.

This is for the primary time that the person who is thought for his social engineering and his clan picture and somebody who has dominated the state for near a decade and a half, barring just a few months when he made Jitan Ram Manjhi the chief minister to maintain the seat heat for him, has apparently talked about quitting electoral politics.

However, Nitish Kumar’s political detractors have referred to as his “last election” ploy a “plea for mercy” as a result of JDU-BJP authorities’s non-performance.

Kumar’s political adversaries have reacted with an unbridled glee. “Nitish Kumar has realised that he has become tired…That he cannot handle Bihar. Today, he has understood the ground reality and decided to quit,” RJD chief and the chief ministerial candidate of the opposition Grand Alliance Tejashwi Yadav stated.

Chirag Paswan, the LJP chief, who led his get together out of the NDA in Bihar simply earlier than the election, contended Kumar’s feedback at his rally on the final day of canvassing would have demoralised JD(U) candidates even additional.

“I don’t know who advised him to make this statement at his last rally. When the leader runs away from the battleground, the contestants will definitely be demoralised,” the younger LJP chief stated.

Some within the JDU stated what Kumar meant was that it was his final public assembly of the election and never the final election of his political profession. They, nevertheless, selected to be nameless.

Congress too grabbed the chance to slam Nitish and certainly one of its MLCs  Premchandra Mishra stated the Bihar CM’s announcement was an acceptance of “impending defeat”. “Nitish Kumar is tired and retired. A wave of change sweeps Bihar,” Randeep Surjewala stated whereas reacting to the event.

There is little question that lots is at stake for Nitish Kumar and the JDU-BJP alliance in Bihar, particularly in view of opinion polls suggesting Tejashwi Yadav quick closing within the hole between him and Nitish forward of the third part polling o November 7.

Kumar has been the chief minister since November 2005, barring the 9 months when his confidant Jitan Ram Manjhi had occupied the workplace as a stop-gap association after he stepped down in May 2014, proudly owning ethical accountability for the JD(U)’s drubbing within the Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar started his political journey method again in 1977. It took him eight years to win his first election from Harnaut in 1985 after failing twice (in 1977 after which once more in 1980). Since then, Kumar has not seemed again.

A product of the JP Movement of 1974-75, Kumar, who’s searching for a fourth consecutive time period as chief minister, has been one of many two main poles of Bihar politics — the opposite being RJD supremo Lalu Prasad — because the Mandal revolution within the 1990s.

Kumar has come a good distance from the political years he spent within the shadow of, first, Lalu, after which George Fernandes within the Samata Party, which the 2 of them had based in 1994. In 2000, as a part of the NDA, Nitish turned the chief minister. The BJP has been supporting him since 2005, barring 4 years (June 2013 to July 2017).

A fourth-term victory within the polls will allow Kumar to surpass the file of Bihar’s first chief minister Shrikrishna Singh, who was on the helm for little underneath 15 years.

On the opposite hand, a defeat for him holds out the spectre of political oblivion because the JD(U), in contrast to the BJP and RJD, doesn’t have a formidable organisational equipment or loyal caste help base. 

It is only a matter of some days till it turns into clear if the massive gamble performed by Nitish Kumar really paid off effectively for the NDA alliance or Bihr will vote for a change of guard this time.