Nitish Kumar won’t back Congress
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's categorical statement that his party will not support the Congress in any eventuality, should end all speculation that he has been plotting some sort of an alliance between the JD(U) and the Congress. Rumours of a JD(U)-UPA friendship have been doing the rounds for long, but the fact is that they have never withstood any logical scrutiny. Two key triggers set these rumours in motion: First, Mr Kumar's reported displeasure over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s projection by the BJP on the national stage; and second, Union Minister for Finance P Chidambaram's promise during his Budget speech in March that he will consider Mr Kumar's repeated pleas for a special status for Bihar. In the first case, it was assumed that the perceived clash between the two successful Chief Ministers would lead Mr Kumar to distance himself from the BJP-led alliance. But given that neither the BJP nor the NDA has officially announced a prime ministerial candidate, all talk of a Narendra Modi-Nitish Kumar stand-off is in the realm of speculation. Moreover, if the first trigger was based on little more than political gossip, the second is even less grounded in reality. To argue that the JD(U) would join hands with the Congress merely because the UPA Government at the Centre may offer Bihar a special package is absurd, to say the least. The BJP has already made clear that it will fulfill Mr Kumar's request, if it comes to power. Mr Kumar has also himself clarified that there is no need to read between the lines of either Mr Chidambaram’s statement or his own response to the same.
Indeed, the entire proposition of a JD(U)-Congress combine is based on faulty logic for several reasons. First, Mr Kumar believes strongly that the Congress-led alliance will not return to power for a third term; he said so in as many words on Thursday. His scathing criticism of the nine years of UPA rule marked by corruption, unemployment, inflation and deceleration of economic growth, should be enough to shatter any Congressman's fond hope of JD(U)’s support. Second, Mr Kumar has been ruling Bihar in partnership with the BJP since 2005. The JD(U)-BJP alliance has proved to be strong and stable, it has delivered good governance and stood the test of time. In fact, in 2010, the JD(U)-BJP partnership even registered the biggest ever victory in the history of Bihar by winning a whopping 206 seats in the 243-member legislative Assembly. Against this backdrop, it is difficult to imagine that Mr Kumar would rock a boat which has been sailing smoothly only to hop on to one that he is convinced is poised to sink.
Finally, even as Mr Kumar attempts to chart his way in national politics, he will only do so keeping in mind his political compulsions at the State level. Towards that end, he is bound to factor in his political rival, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad — who supports the UPA from outside. Again, it requires a stretch of imagination to see that Mr Kumar would willingly lump himself with Mr Prasad. look at it any which way you want, but nothing explains why Mr Kumar should join the UPA or even extend covert or overt outside support to the Congress-led coalition, and commit political harakiri.