Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar will return as Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth time on Sunday, but the events of the last fortnight leading to the unceremonious exit of Jitan Ram Manjhi from the seat of power will have an lingering impact on the Bihar politics in the run-up to the Assembly polls six months from now. Manjhi submitted his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi on Friday just before the Assembly was to meet for the trust vote. This will be the fourth time Nitish will occupy the post of the Chief Minister. In the past, no one has achieved this distinction in the State.
The Governor invited the JD(U) leader to form a Government, following the dramatic resignation by Manjhi. Nitish will be sworn in on Sunday (February 22). He is expected to take the floor test to prove his majority on March 11, five days ahead of the deadline of three weeks given by the Raj Bhavan. The swearing-in ceremony will be attended, among others, by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD supremo lalu Prasad and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee. The date has been fixed for their convenience since the two Yadav leaders will remain busy with family wedding ceremony at Saifai on Saturday.
Nitish first became CM on March 3, 2000 for eight days. Second time he assumed this office on November 24, 2005 for full five years, and resumed the chair for third time on November 25, 2010. He resigned on May 20, 2014 owning moral responsibility for the drubbing of his party in the lok Sabha elections. Then he installed Manjhi in the chair of the CM. Facing criticism for first quitting the post and then going all out to regain it, Nitish donned the cap of AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal by seeking apology from the people of Bihar with folded hands for committing a blunder by resigning and said he would not do it again.
“I will again work with the same zeal and temperament which I did for over eight years. The main issue before me will be the governance,” he said at a crowded Press conference, which was also attended by State JD(U) president Bashistha Narain Singh, RJD leaders Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Ramchandra Purbe, Congress leaders Sadanand Singh and Ashok Chaudhary, CPI leaders Kedar Pandey and others.
Emerging from the Raj Bhavan, a beaming Nitish told mediapersons that his Government would decide dates for convening Assembly Session, which would be full-fledged budget session and begin with the address by the Governor. Nitish also thanked West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and former UP CM Mayawati for their support. “The Bihar issue brought political unity across the country and accelerated the merger process of Janata Parivar parties,” he claimed and added that this unity scared the BJP.
As the news of the invitation from Raj Bhavan to take oath to Nitish came out, the supporting MlAs smeared gulal on faces of each other even as the crowd gathered outside Raj Bhavan burst crackers and broke out in celebrations. After assuming power the most critical job for Nitish would be to restore the law and order situation and bring back the State on the track of development, which suffered badly during Manjhi’s stint as Chief Minister.
The Manjhi episode which was hotly debated for over a month threatened to create a social divide with Mahadalits rising in support of Manjhi and accusing Nitish of humiliating their leader. Nitish will have to undertake serious measures to win back the trust of the Mahadalit, a constituency which he had carved by dividing the Dalit caste and leaving out the relatively prosperous Paswans out of the benefit that went to the Mahadalits.
The BJP, which stood by Manjhi, hopes to capitatise on the development. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that Mahadalits would vote against Nitish with a sense of vengeance in the coming Assembly election. However, out of 17 JD(U) MlAs of Mahdalit society 14 remained in Nitish camp. Nitish is likely to give more representation to this society in his Government formation.