Bihar Chief Minister’s decision to desert the Mahagathbandhan of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and Left parties and form a government with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party has come as a major setback for the alliance in Bihar as well as the INDIA bloc nationally, top RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari told The Indian Express on Tuesday.
“Political calculations have surely gone topsy-turvy. With Nitish with us, we had a clear advantage. But now, it is very tough for Mahagathbandhan and INDIA bloc,” Tiwari, the RJD national vice-president and a veteran socialist leader who worked with Nitish previously, told IE when asked about the ramifications of the Bihar CM’s latest flip.
Pointing to the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where the NDA bagged 39 of the 40 seats in the state, Tiwari admitted that the RJD, along with the Congress and Left, has considerable ground to cover. “This is where we have to be in the field. Tejashwi has done the right thing by trying to own up (government) achievements made under his leadership. We have to keep up the momentum and work around our A to Z (all-community) politics,” he said.
Tiwari’s remarks came a day after Nitish was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for a record ninth time, bringing the curtains down on the Mahagathbandhan government of 17 months. Expressing shock and dismay at the turn of events, Tiwari said that having known Nitish for many years, all he could say was that he wasn’t the same politician he once was.
“I want to know who had invited him to join Mahagathbandhan in August 2022. I am also a witness to how he, after returning to us in 2022, had apologised to former CM Rabri Devi with folded hands for his 2017 switch to BJP. That time, I was made to believe that he would now stay back and give a right direction to Mandal politics we all championed all these years,” Tiwari told IE.
On the other hand, Tiwari heaped praise on Tejashwi Yadav for the maturity he has shown in handling the situation. The RJD vice-president credited Tejashwi for blending his father Lalu Prasad’s social justice theme with development politics and recalled how he made Nitish own up his schemes after the RJD and JD(U) got together in 2022.
“The same Nitish who had laughed away Tejashwi’s job promise at the Gopalganj rally during 2020 poll campaign ended up distributing appointment letters. Here, Tejashwi has clearly scored over Nitish.”
Asked how he foresees Nitish’s future politics now, Tiwari said that the RJD was very happy when Nitish had raised the Extremely Backward Classes pitch and how almost all the parties had started vying with each other after Karpoori Thakur was awarded the Bharat Ratna. “I was also reminded of how Nitish, Mangani Lal Mandal and I and some others had first talked about making EBC a part of social justice plan in 1992. Now, I wonder how Nitish had returned to socialist camp in 2022 with caste survey theme and had built the right momentum. He might now get political benefits but his politics has lost all its core values,” Tiwari added.