JD(U) gets its voice back: ‘End of isolation, restoration of respectability for Nitish’

NITISH Kumar’s string of flip-flops, combined with the decline in its electoral performance, had prompted many to see the JD(U) as a spent and desperate force in Bihar. So, when the results showed the JD(U) shoulder to shoulder with the BJP, at top of the tally in Bihar, with 12 of the 16 seats it contested in its kitty, the party was clear: it was “the end of isolation and restoration of respectability” for its leader Nitish.

The icing on the cake was that with the BJP falling short of a majority in Parliament, Nitish was back where he loves best: in the role of a kingmaker. JD(U) advisor and national spokesperson K C Tyagi said the party expected its ties with the BJP to bear “the reflection of Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani era” in terms of practising “cohesive coalition politics”.

As a next step, the JD(U) will be attending an NDA meeting called in Delhi Wednesday and, Tyagi said, join the Union Cabinet if invited.

The JD(U) held its ground despite Nitish failing to draw good crowds during the election campaign. There was much talk of the party “hiding behind Narendra Modi” to fight anti-incumbency against its candidates.

But eventually, Nitish’s carefully cultivated constituency – a good chunk of EBCs and Scheduled Caste Mahadalits, besides the caste-neutral constituency of women – held its faith in the man who has now been the CM of Bihar for 22 years. CM Nitish’s push for a caste survey, forcing even the state BJP, when it was not a JD(U) ally, to fall behind it, also appears to have paid off at a time when the Opposition was busy making a case for caste census.

A senior JD(U) leader in Bihar said the alliance with the BJP paid off as well. “One must not forget that when we had contested alone in the 2014 polls,