New Delhi: A day after the NDA won the Bihar elections, the action is slowly shifting towards government formation. The results of the assembly election has meant that the Janata Dal (United) can no longer continue with its “big brother” attitude even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident that its numbers will ensure a greater say in the government functioning.
The BJP won 74 of Bihar’s 243 seats, while Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) was restricted to 43 seats, down from 71 in 2015.
According to a senior BJP leader, the new cabinet will have more representation of BJP leaders, which will also translate into greater assertiveness.
A number of senior party leaders met in Patna Wednesday to formulate the contours of government formation. A meeting will be held later in the day at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi to discuss cabinet formation.
“Within a day or two, the final structure of the cabinet will be decided after consultation with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who will head the government,” the senior BJP leader told ThePrint. “The fact that the JD(U) got less numbers would not have any bearing on his chief ministership. This is something that the senior leadership had decided earlier.”
A number of JD(U) leaders that ThePrint spoke to also reiterated this. “It is quite natural that a party with a bigger number will proportionately get more ministers. So that is what can be expected here also,” a senior JD(U) leader said. “But now we are even hearing that some people are going around saying Nitishji will not be the CM. You tell me, how do we respond to such statements? PM Modi and the central leadership had already made it clear that Nitish Kumar will be the CM, so we should focus on that.”
BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal told ThePrint that consultations have started. “Since we are an old alliance partner and have been running the government for quite some time with Nitishji, there will be no problem in finalisation of the new cabinet,” he said.
On Wednesday, BJP incharge of Bihar, Bhupendra Yadav, briefed party president J.P. Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the discussion held at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s residence Tuesday night.
Given its greater numbers, the BJP is likely to be more assertive in the newly constituted assembly and voices within the party have already started raising their demands to have a BJP chief minister.
BJP’s SC Morcha chief in Bihar, Ajit Kumar Chaudhary, Tuesday said it was time for the BJP to appoint its own chief minister in the state. This, however, was ruled out by Jaiswal, who maintained that Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya told ThePrint: “Nitish will be chief minister despite the BJP winning more seats than the JD(U) as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a promise and BJP believes in honouring its promises.”
Also read: Tejashwi’s arrival, Nitish’s tenacity, Shah’s masterstroke — 5 takeaways from Bihar results
More BJP ministers likely in cabinet
In the last cabinet, the JD(U) had 17 ministers and BJP had 12, including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi. Although, many of the plum portfolios were with the BJP — Sushil Modi had headed finance and information technology, Prem Kumar was the agriculture minister, Nand Kishore Yadav headed road construction for a long time while revenue and health were with Mangal Pandey.
According to a BJP source, the party will “definitely” try to keep these ministries with them apart from getting some additional berths to accommodate a number of new faces. “By giving them a chance to emerge as the new leadership in the next couple of years, the party wants to focus on its expansion too,” the source said.
A JD(U) leader and cabinet minister in the last Nitish government said they are adopting a wait-and-watch policy. “Let the BJP make it clear what they want. It is, in a way, continuation of the government. If the BJP wants changes in the government, they will communicate to the chief minister,” the leader said. “Any decision will be taken after mutual consultation. There is no denying that BJP has won more seats, so there will be more representation from their side.”
While the BJP does want to be more assertive, it is also mindful of the fact that Nitish has to be tackled very “carefully” as he always has the option to jump ship. “He has done this in the past, so there is no guarantee that he won’t now,” said a second senior BJP leader.
“The power equation has definitely changed, but Nitish Kumar will not take anything lying down and at the same time, he has nothing to lose. This is his last stint and he is quite aware of that.”
The BJP and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) have contested elections as allies for most of the last two decades, barring the 2015 assembly polls when Nitish allied with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. In 2005, the JD(U) and BJP had fought on 139 and 102 seats, winning 88 and 55 respectively. Then, in 2010, the JD(U) contested 141 seats and won 115, while the BJP contested 102 seats and won 91.
‘Wouldn’t want to send wrong message to allies’
A third BJP leader said that with assembly elections set to take place in five other states, including West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu among others, the party does not want to send a political message that the “BJP has betrayed its alliance partner and now it is not accommodating alliance partners”.
In the past year, the BJP’s oldest allies, the Shiv Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal, have left the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), making Nitish all the more crucial for the party at this juncture.
This, however, would not not mean that Nitish will be given a free hand in administration and policy making, said the third BJP leader, adding that the party will have a larger say in policy formulation.
Even though the BJP has never been in power on its own, and many argue that the party could not have retained power in Bihar without Nitish Kumar, the results definitely give the BJP some leverage. According to a fourth senior BJP leader, in Nitish Kumar’s fourth term, the balance of power is not only likely to be different but will tilt towards the BJP.
It had promised creating 19 lakh job opportunities in the next five years, including three lakh teacher appointments, one lakh jobs in the health sector and had also promised to develop Bihar as an IT hub.
“Although RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav had promised to give 10 lakh government jobs, people have trusted us. It is our duty to fulfill that promise,” outgoing Road Minister Nand Kishore Yadav said.
“The biggest priority of the new government would be to address unemployment, create a conducive environment for industry and this can’t be fulfilled by government jobs only, but by creating food processing units, creating IT infrastructure among others,” Yadav said.
Also read: Nitish Kumar — ‘political wizard’ with no solo election win set to become CM 7th time