Nitish Kumar may have earned respect and stature in Bihar for helping people to get rid of Lalu Yadav, giving good governance and maintaining a clean image, he cannot be considered as a loyal and honest leader, who respects his mentors and guides.
For long, Nitish was part of Lalu Yadav’s cavalcade that looted Bihar. Political opportunism forced him to ditch Lalu and join Geroge Fernandes’ Samata Party. And, when he eclipsed to power, he lost George and even denied him a ticket in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
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George Fernandes had to contest the polls as an Independent, but lost due to lack of support from JD(U) and BJP cadres. Only after the intervention of Sharad Yadav, who quit his Rajya Sabha seat after winning Lok Sabha polls, George was elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed.
From 2002 till 2010, Nitish did not oppose Narendra Modi. He did not even utter a single word against him. However, soon after winning 118 seats in Bihar Assembly in 2010 polls, Nitish changed his stance and played the “communal card” to marginalise BJP and dash Modi’s national ambitions. Nitish forgot that BJP had chosen him as the Chief Minister in 2005 even though it had 67 seats as compared to his 47.
Nitish probably thought that he would deal the same blow to BJP, which it suffered after Naveen Patnaik’s master stroke in Odisha in 2009. However, he forgot that BJP has a strong base in Bihar unlike Odisha. Nitish may get a jolt with BJP consolidating his vote bank and Lalu making a return when he face the people in 2015 as a “betrayer” and “opportunist”.
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