Bihar CM sworn in: As anti-BJP movement gathers steam, CM Nitish Kumar has his task cut out

To Narendra Modi, the man who was not at Nitish Kumar’s swearing in, the message from Patna is loud and clear - the anti-BJP movement is gaining steam. And, as the Opposition in the making sat there in Patna, roaring with approval and rapturous applause, they were saying thank you PM Modi, for the rash of ‘mistakes’ in the months leading up to the Bihar election and during it, for coming down so many rungs from the promise of good governance and playing to the gallery at Facebook HQ to mudslinging and election posters with white cows, staying quiet for too long on the lynching of an innocent man in Dadri while sending tweets to Navjot Singh Sidhu and overarching willingness to play communal politics in an election where you headlined no less than 30 rallies. For a prime minister, any prime minister, 30 rallies for a state election when he presumably has much more to do, is a measure of how much was at stake. After Modi’s historic mandate in 2014, ‘his’ Bihar election loss has exposed the BJPs feet of clay. For the first time, the Opposition has found a foothold which seemed wiped out barely 18 months ago. Conspicuous absentee: Mulayam Singh Yadav. What about Nitish, the man who won? The five time chief minister has his task cut out, says The Indian Express. National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah — a veteran of Opposition unity efforts over the past three decades — declared, “Nitish ji ko ab tayyiari karni chahiye Dilli aane ki aur agla Pradhanmantri banne ki,” (Nitishji should now get ready to move to Delhi as the next Prime Minister). The next general election is in 2019.  But before that come a string of state elections. West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala will all go the polls in mid-2016 and Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Goa in the first half of 2017. The anti BJP bloc is well and truly taking shape, says The Hindu. The Indian Express has a must-do list ready for Lalu Prasad if he has to milk this comeback to relevance in national politics. Apart from the rather obvious task of establishing his two sons in state politics, the story goes into how he can drum up his ‘usual’ secular versus communal talk to the next level which will keep his party happy and consequently paint the BJP and Modi in a deeper shade of saffron. Bihar’s Bureaucrats will have two masters, one unofficial. But this is not unique to Bihar. Tamil Nadu’s bureaucrats have long dealt with multiple checks at the door to the official head of state government. At a purely data crunching level, this was just another state election but no it wasn’t. BJPs loss in Bihar, India’s third most populour state with more than 100 million people, mirrors the central government’s dip in national popularity after it played old politics of communal and caste division after coming to power at the Centre on the ‘good governance’ plank. “The first six months will show us how things unfold. It would all depend on the expectations Lalu Prasad has of Nitish Kumar and to what extent Nitish Kumar can take the pressure,” says The Indian Express. As for the swearing in ceremony itself, Sanjay Singh of Firstpost brings you five highlights. First, for the first time a swearing-in ceremony in Patna was turned into a mega event management exercise. The manner in which a huge dais, which was tastefully decorated, was built, seating arrangements were made, high profile guests got ushered in and out — was designed to send a message across that Bihar had come of age and will henceforth march on, or at least try to keep pace with its developed counterparts. There was no pretence of socialistic austerity. Second, Tejaswi Yadav, the younger son of Lalu Yadav-Rabri Devi who’s claim to fame is that he is a ninth standard dropout, is the deputy chief minister of Bihar. He will hold the plum portfolio of road and building construction. Though he had taken oath as a minister, an executive order issued by the chief minister through the Governor’s secretariat later notified that he will be the official deputy to Nitish Kumar. He sat next to Nitish before the swearing-in and he was the one who stood up to take oath of office after Nitish was sworn in as chief minister. Lalu’s social support base would be happy with the move. It does not matter to them whether Tejaswi’s educational qualification is rather stunted or whether he is a first time MLA who is just 26-year-old. Parties like RJD, after all, function like a private limited proprietorship company where dynast is not a bad word. Moreover, Lalu’s RJD with 80 legislators, is the single largest party in the state assembly. Nitish’s JD(U) has 71. [caption id=“attachment_2515434” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bihar CM with Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi in Patna on oath-taking ceremony in Patna. PTI[/caption] Third, the other son of Lalu, Tej Pratap, would be happy to be a powerful minister in the state but he certainly appeared ill-prepared to take up such a post. He fumbled twice while reading from the swearing-in text: He spelled apekshit (expected) as upekshit (discarded) and for the second time when he had to read a line ‘jab bhi tab ke siwa’. Governor Ram nath Kovind had to correct him twice and prompt the right words when Tej Pratap did a repeat reading. Watch the goof-up here. Tej Pratap has been given the all important portfolio of health. In fact, road and health are the two most visible portfolios in the Nitish government that had become hallmark of his governance plank. The RJD has also grabbed the finance ministry. Its popular Muslim face Abdul Bari Sidiqui will have control over state’s exchequer. Nitish will retain home. He perhaps couldn’t have left handling of law and order to the RJD. Another important portfolio, energy, will be controlled by RJD’s Vijendra Prasad Yadav. Nitish surely has a challenge ahead of him in making sure that the RJD ministers, including his deputy, perform up to mark. Fourth, the galaxy of leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony was clearly indicative of making of an anti-Modi front – it included Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Farooq Abdullah, Sitaram Yechuri and D Raja. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi arrived very late, just before the event was about to be over. Bihar Congress president and minister designate Ashok Choudhary who had gone to airport to receive Rahul, in fact, managed to reach to the podium in Gandhi Maidan just in time to be sworn-in. It also provided an occasion for M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official representative and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, to interact with a host of Opposition leaders. It’s not known yet whether he could have a word with them about the winter session of Parliament. Sometimes, plain bonhomie and courtesy calls open possibilities for building up better rapport in future. Fifth, the most conspicuous absentee, Mulayam Singh Yadav or anyone from his Samajwadi Party clan. If building of an anti-Modi front was being signalled in Patna, Mulayam and his son Akhilesh Yadav’s absence from the scene meant that there were holes in the opposition unity plank much before it has been created.