Today in Politics: Clarity likely in Bihar situation as Nitish Kumar plans his next move

The big political question of Saturday is this: What will Nitish Kumar’s deal with the BJP look like?

The Bihar CM and Janata Dal (United) supremo is no stranger to negotiating with various parties in his long career marked with flip-flops. Now, as the BJP and the JD(U) alliance looks imminent once again, it is looking like the arrangement will be very similar to the post-2020 Assembly election scenario. Nitish looks set to return as Chief Minister at the head of the NDA government in Bihar and may have two Deputy CMs from the BJP.

More clarity on Nitish’s position going forward will be available on Saturday, with the BJP and JD(U) likely to hold party meetings and then convene a meeting of the alliance to choose Nitish as its leader. He is expected to stake a fresh claim to form the government with the BJP over the weekend.

But why did Nitish agree to partner up with a party that he once accused of trying to “split and finish” off the JD(U)?

As Santosh Singh writes, the answer may lie in the unease that Nitish is said to have felt in the current political set-up with the Congress, RJD, and the INDIA bloc overall.

At least seven JD(U) MPs were said to be in touch with the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Nitish likely sensed that the party could split if he did not act and decided to move back to the NDA with his party’s political survival in mind. The frailties in the INDIA alliance and differences with the Congress are also said to have contributed to the decision.

For the BJP, an internal survey indicating that the NDA tally in the state would be below 25 this time was one of the reasons why it agreed to reopen communication channels with its former ally. In 2019, when the JD(U) was a part of it, the NDA won 39 of Bihar’s