Will fight 2025 polls under Tejashwi, says Nitish in baton change hints

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday, for a second time in the last couple of days, said he was looking forward to passing the baton to his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

According to those who attended the Mahagathbandhan legislators’ meeting in Patna, Kumar suggested the younger leader could be the chief ministerial face of the RJD-led Grand Alliance in the 2025 Assembly polls.

Since August, when he snapped ties with the BJP, Kumar has repeatedly expressed his intent to take up a more ‘‘national role’’ to shape Opposition unity for 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But with the JDU-RJD-led alliance losing two of three recent bypolls in the state, and Kumar’s popularity waning, the succession could come about sooner, sources said.

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The chacha-bhatija (uncle-nephew) bonhomie — Yadav calls Kumar ‘chacha’, pejoratively as ‘paltu (turncoat) chacha’ when rivals and with affection when allies — was on display on Monday at an event in Nalanda, Kumar's home district. Yadav said he saw the upcoming electoral battle as one between Nalanda, an ancient seat of learning, and Nagpur, home to the RSS headquarters.

While underscoring Kumar's upcoming national role, Yadav was alluding to socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia's construct that the history of 5,000 years of Indian civilisation is one of liberal versus fundamentalist Hinduism.

Kumar, 71, said seniors like him had done their bit and it was time the young Yadav came forward to take up the reins. Kumar and Yadav’s statements come amid leaders in the two parties hopeful of the two offshoots of Janata, or socialist, Parivar offshoots announcing on Makar Sankranti in mid-January that they intend to merge into a new entity. But that would happen only if Lalu Prasad’s health permits, sources said. Prasad is currently convalescing in Singapore after kidney transplant surgery.

Emerging from the meeting of Mahagathbandhan legislators, MLAs spoke of Kumar announcing Yadav as his heir apparent. “The chief minister pointed towards Tejashwi ji and said he is the leader of the future, under whose leadership the 2025 Assembly polls in the state would be fought,” said Mahboob Alam, CPI(ML) MLA.

“The CM has been saying, for quite a while, that the future belongs to Tejashwi ji and youngsters like him. He had said so yesterday in Nalanda where I, too, was present. He said it again today,” said state Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, one of the closest aides of Kumar.