“Aap jaan lijiye (you should know)” has been a pet expression of 10-time Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar to tell people about development works carried out during his tenure spanning nearly two decades.
Barely five days after filing his nomination for the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections – which cleared the decks for a BJP CM to take over the reins of the NDA government in Bihar – Nitish, 75, embarked on the third leg of his Samriddhi Yatra from Supaul on March 10. He concluded this yatra, probably his last one as the CM, at Sheikhpura Saturday, traversing through 10 districts.
From Supaul to Shekhpura, Nitish addressed multiple public meetings, but in none of his speeches did he make any mention of his Rajya Sabha nomination or his impending resignation as the CM. At every place, he concluded his speech after getting the audience endorse his works and raising his hands along with other leaders on the dais. “Sab theek se ho gaya na (Wasn’t everything done in a nice way?)” – this was a recurrent question he asked the gathering at his every meeting.
This final leg of Samriddhi Yatra was meant to remind people about Nitish Kumar’s legacy. BJP leader and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who accompanied him throughout the yatra, likened Nitish to his two legendary predecessors, Karpoori Thakur and Srikrishna Singh, for combining “development with social justice”.
The yatra also served to drop hints about the possibility of Samrat succeeding Nitish as the next CM in the coming days. While Nitish did not make any announcement in this regard, observers said that “the warmth with which he treated Samrat throughout the yatra gives enough hints about the next CM”. While he patted Samrat on his back at the Saharsa meeting Friday, Nitish’s approach towards his deputy at other yatra meetings also reflected their bonhomie.
The JD(U)’s unofficial stance is that the next CM to be chosen by the leadership of its senior ally BJP should “also be of Nitish’s choice”. While the JD(U) has not spelt out its position so far on the issue of the BJP’s first-ever CM in Bihar, it does not want the social combination of OBC Luv-Kush (Kurmi-Koeri) to be disturbed for the CM-Deputy CM posts. While Nitish belongs to the Kurmi community, Samrat is a Kushwaha (Koeri) leader.
Nitish’s son Nishant Kumar, who has joined the JD(U) last week, is likely to be inducted into the new BJP-led government as a Deputy CM.
At the Sheikhpura function Saturday, Nitish reminded people about his government’s various “accomplishments”, highlighting the “appointment of 5.24 lakh new teachers, creation of 40 lakh employment opportunities and 10 lakh jobs, and providing 125 MW free electricity to about two crore consumers”. He repeated his written speech at every meeting. At times,
he also briefly took aim at his rivals without naming them, like RJD chief Lalu Prasad, for not having “done anything”.
“Right from three agriculture roadmaps to three Saat Nischay programmes, we have also unveiled 430 new schemes, 21 of which have been completed,” said Nitish at Sheikhpura. He made a special mention of strengthening self-help groups (SHGs), also known as Jeevika. “After we called it Jeevika, the Centre renamed its similar programme Aajeevika,” he added, thanking the BJP-led Centre for helping Bihar.
In his address, Samrat also hailed Nitish, saying: “Sheikhpura is the land of the first Bihar premier and CM Dr Srikrishna Singh. He represented Khargapur Assembly, of which my current Assembly seat Tarapur used to be a part. Nitish Kumar replicated the development works done by Srikrishna Singh and the social justice model of Karpoori Thakur.”
Samrat also said: “Nitish Kumar started his yatra with the slogan of ‘development with justice’ and concluded rightly with Samriddhi Yatra.
He took Bihar towards a phase of being called a developed state. At present, the government is run under Nitish Kumar’s leadership and it would be guided by him (once he quits as the CM).”
Samriddhi Yatra, Nitish’s 15th yatra as the CM, was projected as less of a farewell yatra and more as a reminder of Nitish’s “Bihar turnaround” story. The yatra also sent out a signal about Nitish’s “continued guidance” for the NDA. JD(U) minister Vijay Choudhary said it throughout the yatra. “Make no mistake: Nitish Kumar is not going anywhere. He would spend most of his time in Bihar even after getting elected to the Rajya Sabha. He would continue to guide us,” Choudhary said Friday.