RJD thrilled, JD(U) miffed with Nitish plan for Tejashwi as 2025 CM face

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s announcement that the RJD-led Grand Alliance will contest the 2025 assembly election under the leadership of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav has generated much political heat in the state.

Although Tejashwi’s party RJD is enthusiastic about the announcement, Nitish’s own party, JD(U), has perhaps not taken his succession plan with as much enthusiasm. Senior JD(U) leader Upendra Kushwaha, considered a close confidant of Nitish, is not convinced with his boss’s plan.

“Our full concentration is currently on the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The question of the 2025 state assembly election does not arise at this stage,” Kushwaha remarked.

Kushwaha’s statement carries some weight, too, as Nitish is expected to renew his efforts to bring all opposition parties on a single platform to challenge the BJP’s juggernaut in 2024.

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Senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi asserted that Gujarat assembly election-like results would be repeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha election if all opposition parties do not come on a single platform. He argued that the BJP suffered defeats in the states where it was in direct fight against key rival parties. So, there was a need to forge unity among all opposition parties.

Nitish’s PM ambitions

Soon after Nitish snapped ties with the BJP to form a new government with the Grand Alliance in August, he embarked on a drive to forge unity among opposition parties, but his efforts have failed to produce a visible result so far.

He has time and again made it clear that he has no ambition to be projected as the Prime Minister face of the Opposition in the 2024 Parliamentary election. However, his close confidants have now obliquely demanded it.

While addressing the JD(U)’s plenary session in the state capital recently, Nitish  said: “There is no scope for a third front in 2024, as there will only be the ‘main front’ against BJP the next time.”

However, senior JD(U) minister Sanjay Jha, considered a close aide of Nitish, said: “We are working to achieve two goals — one that the JD(U) is accorded the status of a national party in 2023 and, second, that Nitish unfurls the national flag at the Red Fort in 2024.”

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He said the Opposition is clueless about what would happen in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and how democracy would be saved. “After Nitish snapped ties with the NDA, there was a glimmer of hope among the Opposition parties, as they understood only Nitish can save the situation in 2024,” he remarked.

JD (U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh said Nitish has dragged Bihar out of the “ghetto of disappointment and desperation” through effective implementation of his programmes and policies. “No other leader of the country would achieve this remarkable feat,” he added.

Similarly, state JD(U) president Umesh Kushwaha called Nitish a “Yug Purush,” asserting that no leader could compete with him, indirectly advocating for his projection as the PM nominee for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Calendars with a slogan that the country should have a Nitish-like leader were also distributed among party leaders participating in the plenary session. The Jharkhand unit of JD(U) also raised slogans projecting him as the future PM.

Will RJD wait?

Contrary to the expectation that Nitish will pass on the baton to Tejashwi to move to national politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he has announced that Tejashwi will lead the Grand Alliance in the 2025 state assembly election.

Political analyst Pravin Bagi said RJD has no problem with Nitish’s declaration that Tejashwi will lead the Grand Alliance in the 2025 Bihar polls. He said RJD was exerting pressure on Nitish to make Tejashwi the chief minister and move to national politics, but the CM “extended the time frame for it very smartly.”

“The RJD has left all these issues for Nitish to decide, as the former has now realised that any hurry on its part could boomerang,” he remarked.

Senior RJD leader and party spokesperson Shakti Yadav said Nitish is a leader of the Grand Alliance and, so, whatever decision he has taken on the 2025 Bihar assembly election is acceptable to all constituents of the alliance.

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“Nitish has a very rich socialist background as he draws inspiration from people like Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya Narendra Deva, and Karpoori Thakur. Hence, he wants to strengthen socialist forces. The country is confronted with various problems such as price rise, unemployment and the Agniveer scheme. So, we need to focus on the larger goal of defeating BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” he added.

“Nobody from a ‘Nagpurian’ background (RSS) will take forward the socialist ideology, but only a person who has inherited the same ideology will be at the helm in Bihar,” he added.

Elated over Nitish’s announcement about Tejashwi leading the Grand Alliance in 2025, RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said: “It is Nitish’s greatness that he has made such a declaration. The Grand Alliance government is working under Nitish’s leadership. RJD has no problem in waiting till 2025. The party is not in a hurry that Tejashwi should be made chief minister soon.”

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Tejashwi has impressed everybody through his style of functioning and, so, he is now being considered for the CM post, he added.

RJD-JD(U) merger?

There is speculation that the two major parties of the Grand Alliance — RJD and JD(U) — will merge to float a new political outfit with a new name and new symbol.

The speculation was triggered by the amendment to RJD’s constitution during its national convention in October, empowering both party chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi as the final arbitrator of all decisions regarding the party’s “name, symbol, and other related issues.”

Although leaders of both parties have been avoiding speaking their minds on the issue, JD(U)’s Upendra Kushwaha said a JD(U) merger with RJD would be “suicidal” while dismissing any such possibility.

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Political analyst Bagi said Kushwaha is not alone in protesting any proposal for RJD-JD(U) merger, as a large section of the party leaders would not accept it. “Nitish did not groom any JD(U) leader who could succeed him,” he remarked.

“JD(U) leaders who contested the last 2020 state assembly election by bagging anti-Lalu votes will not accept the merger,” he explained.

In the event of change of the election symbol following the merger, it would also create confusion among voters, Bagi added while expressing his apprehension over the pitfall of the merger.

“RJD is in a mood to wait (for Tejashwi assuming the post of CM). It fears that any hurry may lead to a split in the JD(U) and, so, it has left Nitish to decide on the merger — whatever he thinks is appropriate,” he added.