Will Nitish be the new NDA convenor?

While the RJD has been completely decimated in Bihar, the other regional chieftain Nitish Kumar has got a fresh lease of life after the JD(U) won 16 out of 17 seats in Bihar. This is a quantum jump by Nitish’s pocket organisation as in 2014, when Nitish contested on his own, the JD(U) could scrape through in merely two seats out of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Having won 39 out of 40 seats, the NDA may have registered its best-ever performance in this part of the cow-belt. But at the same time, chances are that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah would like Nitish to play a national role too, besides continuing as Bihar Chief Minister.

“With such a landslide, in which the BJP won all the 17 seats it contested in Bihar, besides LJP winning all the six seats, the bargaining power of Nitish may have diminished. However, his stature has increased. His good governance, as well as Modi magic, worked wonders for the NDA. Chances are he may be elevated as NDA convenor,” said a senior BJP source, who has worked closely with Nitish as well as saffron camp.

The BJP leader’s indication was not wide off the mark as the previous NDA Government at the Centre (headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee) had an NDA convenor from Bihar in the form of George Fernandes, the main trouble-shooter in the late 1990s. During the UPA regime too, when NDA was out of power, it had its convenor in the form of Sharad Yadav, who incidentally replaced Fernandes as JD(U) president as well as NDA convenor. Yadav continued as NDA convenor till June 2013, when Nitish severed ties with the BJP.

Ever since, Nitish rejoined the NDA after a brief honeymoon with RJD-led Grand Alliance in July 2017, there has been no such proposal of having an NDA convenor or JD(U) being part of the Modi Government.

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“But now that the JD(U) has won 16 seats, there is a probability that Nitish’s men may get a place in the Union Cabinet besides Nitish himself getting the coveted post of NDA convenor,” said the source.

“This is all the more necessary for a better cohesion among the alliance partners of the BJP as many allies are not on the same page on the issue of Article 370, Uniform Civil Code and Ram temple,” he said, and added, “however, the decision has to be taken at the highest level in the saffron camp.”