<p>Patna: Nitish Kumar’s health condition was earlier talked about in a hush-hush tone. But on Sunday, Union Home Minister <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/amit-shah">Amit Shah</a> had a first person account of his deteriorating mental state when <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/nitish-kumar">Nitish</a>, at a Government function in Patna, attended and presided over by Shah, put his arm around a middle-aged woman beneficiary when she was being felicitated by Shah. </p><p>Nitish’s ‘misdemeanour’ put the ruling combine in an embarrassing situation while the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/bihar">Bihar</a> Chief Minister drew wide flak for his frequent gaffes, most of them since January.</p><p>No wonder, Amit Shah, who, a few hours later, sounded poll bugle from Gopalganj, the home turf of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, praised Nitish’s 20 years of good governance but did not name him even once as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the October 2025 Assembly polls. Neither during his meeting with the party workers in Patna, nor during his address at the BJP rally in Gopalganj.</p><p>An astute politician that he is, Shah has three prime reasons to refrain from naming Nitish as the CM nominee.</p>.Chaos at Congress yatra in Bihar's Araria, Kanhaiya Kumar leaves midway.<p>First, once he declares Nitish as the CM candidate, then, in all probability, if the NDA gets majority and Nitish still scores poorly (like last time in 2020 polls where the JD (U) won merely 43 seats out of total 243), he will have to be made Bihar CM again – a move which is fraught with risk given the poor health condition of the JD (U) chief.</p><p>Secondly, Bihar is the only State in the Hindi heartland, where the BJP, despite its best efforts, has so far failed to have its own Chief Minister. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah combine would definitely like to have a BJP CM in Bihar if the NDA is voted to power this time.</p><p>Third, even if the BJP has drawn its well-crafted plan to have its own CM in Bihar, it can’t declare it openly. The best option is why not ride piggyback on Nitish’s good governance, which always fetches rich electoral dividends and whose 14 per cent vote (Nitish’s loyal vote-bank) has remained intact with him, no matter which side of the fence he is with – be it with the NDA or the Mahagatbandhan.</p><p>“Most probably, the BJP is deftly planning to use Nitish’s face to win polls. Once the results are out, it will dump him in the dustbin on one pretext or the other and install its own leader as the next Bihar CM,” opined noted political commentator Ajay Kumar, quoting his conversation with several ruling party leaders as well as that of the RJD.</p>
<p>Patna: Nitish Kumar’s health condition was earlier talked about in a hush-hush tone. But on Sunday, Union Home Minister <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/amit-shah">Amit Shah</a> had a first person account of his deteriorating mental state when <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/nitish-kumar">Nitish</a>, at a Government function in Patna, attended and presided over by Shah, put his arm around a middle-aged woman beneficiary when she was being felicitated by Shah. </p><p>Nitish’s ‘misdemeanour’ put the ruling combine in an embarrassing situation while the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/bihar">Bihar</a> Chief Minister drew wide flak for his frequent gaffes, most of them since January.</p><p>No wonder, Amit Shah, who, a few hours later, sounded poll bugle from Gopalganj, the home turf of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, praised Nitish’s 20 years of good governance but did not name him even once as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the October 2025 Assembly polls. Neither during his meeting with the party workers in Patna, nor during his address at the BJP rally in Gopalganj.</p><p>An astute politician that he is, Shah has three prime reasons to refrain from naming Nitish as the CM nominee.</p>.Chaos at Congress yatra in Bihar's Araria, Kanhaiya Kumar leaves midway.<p>First, once he declares Nitish as the CM candidate, then, in all probability, if the NDA gets majority and Nitish still scores poorly (like last time in 2020 polls where the JD (U) won merely 43 seats out of total 243), he will have to be made Bihar CM again – a move which is fraught with risk given the poor health condition of the JD (U) chief.</p><p>Secondly, Bihar is the only State in the Hindi heartland, where the BJP, despite its best efforts, has so far failed to have its own Chief Minister. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah combine would definitely like to have a BJP CM in Bihar if the NDA is voted to power this time.</p><p>Third, even if the BJP has drawn its well-crafted plan to have its own CM in Bihar, it can’t declare it openly. The best option is why not ride piggyback on Nitish’s good governance, which always fetches rich electoral dividends and whose 14 per cent vote (Nitish’s loyal vote-bank) has remained intact with him, no matter which side of the fence he is with – be it with the NDA or the Mahagatbandhan.</p><p>“Most probably, the BJP is deftly planning to use Nitish’s face to win polls. Once the results are out, it will dump him in the dustbin on one pretext or the other and install its own leader as the next Bihar CM,” opined noted political commentator Ajay Kumar, quoting his conversation with several ruling party leaders as well as that of the RJD.</p>