Nitish Kumar's resignation: how he became a victim of his own ego

Patna: It’s ego that did Nitish Kumar in. Nothing else explains better the downfall of the Bihar chief minister. Till a shade more than a year ago, he was the envy of political rivals. He led a successful coalition government, the performance of which rivaled the best in the country. He was feted as Bihar’s own development man and applauded for making the one-time leading Bimaru state a pulsating, vibrant economic entity. Even economists of international repute debated the state’s turnaround miracle.

He could do no wrong. Then somewhere along the line ambition crept in. He wanted to be the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate. No one grudged him the ambition, but he allowed ego to take over. He made his rivalry with Narendra Modi acrimonious, intensely personal and set himself on a politically suicidal course. He broke the 17-year-old alliance with the BJP last year and decided to go it alone. While spewing venom on the BJP, he was busy alienating all other potential political friends too. The simple, affable, accessible man was suddenly being perceived as an arrogant, confused man. At the beginning of the campaign for the general elections, he had turned unpopular.

His defeat was a foregone conclusion given his moves prior to the elections. He was politically isolated with no allies to fall back upon. He could no more boast of development and he had no caste engineering to lean on. The Modi wave was sweeping across the state and he had no response to it. However, a tally of two seats out of 40 was not what he would have prepared for. Even JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav had to bite the dust in his favourite seat.

His resignation today does not surprise. But what exactly prompted him to take this decision? Although he claimed he resigned as chief minister owning moral responsibility for the disastrous performance of his party in the elections, the reality is said to be entirely different.

Nitish was heading a minority government with his party’s tally at 114 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, which was eight short of majority mark. The government was running with the support of four Congress members, equal number of Independents and one CPI member. However, Nitihs’s relation with the Congress had turned bitter during the poll campaign. The Independents were not happy with him either. Apparently, Nitish feared they may withdraw support at any time and hence he played safe by resigning.

Another story doing the rounds is that Nitish apprehended dismissal of his government with his arch-rival Narendra Modi as the new prime minister. The BJP had already begun putting pressure on Nitish to resign from the post in the light o his party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha. Apparently, Nitish sensed some danger ahead for his government in coming days. Yet another story is that it would have been quite embarrassing for Nitish to personally welcome PM Modi should he come to Bihar on a visit. Nitish had gone too far in opposing Modi in public.

Nitish, who was very much left as a lone campaigner in the poll battlefield, was finding it hard to tackle rebellion within the party. The rebellion had been brewing ever since he snapped his alliance with the BJP and decided to come out of the NDA. It had intensified through the elections and after the defeat it is set to take the shape of an implosion.

His resignation was a culmination of a series of developments over the last few years. Nitish made political blunders, huge ones, by allowing his ego to dictate his decisions. He will be very lonely man now.