BJP’s Bihar dilemma

The role of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who has just made his foray into the Rajya Sabha, has hit a roadblock in national politics. Nitish is likely to resign as CM during the first week of April. JDU hard bargained that the patriarch may be assigned a Cabinet berth/portfolio and his son Nishant as Deputy CM. Grapevine has it that Nitish may not see himself in the Union Council of Ministers due to ill health. The regional party leadership is being convinced that he may be given a responsibility as NDA office bearer, but now the BJP is in a fix since Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, also a JDU man, is learnt to see a respectable entry into the NDA. The toss is now between Nitish and his trusted aide Harivansh, and the latter is understood to have won over the trust of the BJP’s leadership. The party is in a dilemma as three heavyweights, Nitish, Harivansh and the BJP chief Nitin Nabin, all hail from Bihar.