This special report covers Nitish Kumar taking oath as Bihar's Chief Minister for the tenth time, following a landslide victory for the NDA in the state assembly elections. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J.P. Nadda, and other senior leaders. Rajdeep Sardesai states, 'He's played these dual roles of both Sushasan Babu and Paltu Ram, depending on which side of the political divide you are'. The programme analyses Kumar's political career, which is marked by his shifting alliances and his reputation as a survivor. Sardesai also discusses the factors behind his success, including his focus on the women's vote through schemes like prohibition and reservations in panchayats. The bulletin highlights the NDA's show of strength, with chief ministers of other states, including Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, also in attendance for the event in Patna.
00:00Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J.P. Nadda now on the main stage from where the oath-taking ceremony will happen.
00:08So when we look at these visuals, it's a day of show of strength, as we have been saying, of the NDA.
00:14Prime Minister Modi is going to arrive any moment now, Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of all NDA-ruled states across the country in attendance.
00:23Rajdeep Sardesai joins us.
00:26Now, Rajdeep, from being sown in for the first time in 2000, and now the 10th time, Nitish Kumar being sown in as the Chief Minister.
00:36Of course, you know, technically, it should have been his fifth term, but he is someone also who has had brief tenures in the past.
00:46Absolutely. But, Maria, let's look at it from both sides.
00:49One is, it's quite remarkable that someone in the rootless politics of North India, in particular of the Hindi heartland, has actually survived and importantly stayed relevant for almost quarter of a century.
01:05I mean, that is almost something that no other leader post-independence has achieved in the politics of North India at the Chief Ministerial level.
01:14So, it's not just being sworn in the 10th time, because it has been a turbulent period every now and then in Bihar, but Nitish has always remained as the fulcrum.
01:25Things have changed around him, but he has remained on the chair.
01:29Now, survival is part of politics, and he's made it almost into an art form.
01:34That's the positive.
01:35On the negative side somewhere, I think when survival becomes an end in itself, then somewhere the ideological conviction of someone who started in the JP movement, was seen as an old-style socialist, I think he has had to make many compromises at various times.
01:54So, there is the art of survival that you can learn from Nitish Kumar, and there's the art of compromise.
02:00And what is very clear, Maria, is that he's played these dual roles of both Sushasan Babu and Palturam, depending on which side of the political divide you are.
02:12But the voters itself, as we saw in this election, seem to have a certain affinity with Nitish Babu.
02:20And I think this election, in a sense, defined that, that even after 20 years in power, you met very few voters who were angry with Nitish Kumar or frustrated with Nitish Kumar, some fatigues, but no anger.
02:36And that is, you know, and that is to his great credit, that if you can remain in power, and yet not attract such strong emotions of anger or discontent, then there is something that you've done right, even if you've tied up one day with the RJD, one day with the BJP, been anti-Modi one day, anti-Lalu the next.
02:59Nitish Kumar is a case study in the art of political survival, his critics will say art of political betrayal, but at the end of the day, he's proven to be a lamba race ka ghoda.
03:13And as late Shankarshan Thakur famously said, Rajdeep, that Nitish Kumar has conscience on call, it's not a call of conscience that he has been switching sides.
03:24Absolutely. Absolutely. And as a result, I think somewhere, many of Nitish's admirers have drifted away from him. Those who were close to him at one time, feel that Nitish has made too many political somersaults.
03:40And as you said, conscience on call. But yet, politics is about the art of the possible. And Nitish Kumar has shown that. I mean, just think about it. How many others could have in the last decade been fiercely anti-Modi ji one day, and yet embrace Modi ji the next?
04:01Anti-Lalu one day, and yet do an alliance with Lalu ji on more than one occasion. So, and with a small caste group backing him, he comes from a Kurmi community, not more than 2.5%.
04:15The Janta Dal united organization, not as powerful as either the BJP or the RJD, and yet to survive. He's the marathon man of Indian politics.
04:26You know, very famously, Maria, many years ago, someone called him the Amol Palekar of Indian politics.
04:32That, you know, they saw him as some kind of a middle-class hero at the time. Because he was seen as being soft-spoken, never aggressive, never raised his voice.
04:43Much like an Amol Palekar, the actor in cinema. But over the years, I think some of that aura around him has diminished.
04:53But his relevance has not. He still remains relevant to Bihar politics.
04:58Now, that might also show the lack of options, Maria, in your home state. That there has been no other strong leadership that has emerged, not even from the BJP, to counter Nithish Kumar's relevance.
05:10But good luck to Nithish Kumar. And I don't think anyone who saw Lalu and Nithish both emerge as these brothers Bihari in the 1970s would have guessed that Nithish Kumar would outlast Lalu Prasad.
05:23Because Lalu Prasad was the charismatic populist who garnered the votes. But at the end of the day, guess what? Lalu Prasad is now virtually in political hibernation.
05:33And Nithish Kumar is not even a cat with nine lives. He's now a political lion with ten lives.
05:40Yes. And the silent Bihari, as he is famously known as Rajdeep, whatever is said and done, he has given Biharis a sense of pride.
05:50But what explains that a leader who was at the peak of his popularity in 2010, 15 years later, has got the same mandate?
06:01I mean, a mandate as high, as huge, as emphatic as the one that he got in 2010.
06:08I'm seeing the images on the screen, Marianne. You see so many women out there.
06:12Women.
06:12And I think that women factor is quite remarkable. And here, Nithish Kumar was ahead of the curve.
06:18Recall 2006, his scheme to give cycles to girl-childs so that they could go to school.
06:25Recall his decision to give 50% reservation in panchayats, again in his first term, to women.
06:31Recall his decision to give EBC women their space in the sun.
06:35Then, prohibition in 2016, not the easiest decision to implement in a Hindi heartland state.
06:42The Jivika Diri network that was set up, that was so important to his success this time.
06:47So, that Mahila vote, Nithish Kumar was ahead of the curve.
06:52Now, every politician, every political party is wooing the Mahila vote.
06:56But Nithish, I would dare to say, was the first male politician in the country to actively and aggressively view the Mahila vote.
07:05And I think that, in a sense, has been the rock which has enabled Nithish Kumar to build his foundation of success.
07:13We are seeing Eknath Shinde on the stage.
07:16So, is Devendra Fadnavis, the entire Maharashtra, bigwigs on the dais there, for the swearing-in ceremony, other top leaders.
07:26From Bhupendra Patel, Chief Minister of Gujarat, to Chief Ministers of all NDA-ruled states in Northeast, present.
07:34We have been talking about show of strength, Rajdeep, and also saying that perhaps 2024 results,
07:40where the NDA, the BJP, to be specific, was short of the halfway mark.
07:47They were at 240.
07:49Then, there are four state assemblies elections which are held after that.
07:55Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, and now Bihar.
07:58All these states have been won with a landslide.
08:01Will you then be calling 2024 some kind of strategic mistake or was that an aberration?
08:12You know, Maria, let's remember that even while the NDA came down to 290-odd and the BJP to 240 in 2024 Lok Sabha,
08:22Bihar delivered 30 out of the 40 seats to the NDA.
08:2739.
08:2839, sorry, yes.
08:2930 out of 39?
08:31So, Bihar…
08:3139 out of 40.
08:33Sorry, 31 out of 40.
08:35So, Bihar remained solidly with the NDA.
08:39You know, it is not as if there was a turnaround like in Maharashtra.
08:42Maharashtra, there was a turnaround.
08:44The NDA was on the back foot in the Lok Sabha, scored heavily in the Vidant Sabha within five months.
08:49That was more of a surprise.
08:51Here, it was staring you in the wall because the arithmetic of the alliance that was crafted by the BJP that included not just Nitish Kumar,
09:02but importantly, Chirag Paswan, Upendra Kushwa, Jitin Ram Maji, it was a very, very broad alliance.
09:10And Nitish Kumar, therefore, his success should not be seen as some kind of an aberration.
09:17Even in 2024, Lok Sabha, Bihar went solidly with the NDA.
09:21I don't know what made some political analysts actually believe that the RJD had a chance.
09:27Frankly, arithmetically, they had no chance.
09:30And when you look at the chemistry that existed on the ground, clearly, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi, the NEMO factor as I call it,
09:38were able to strike some kind of a working relationship which was not happening on the other side.
09:44So, both arithmetic and chemistry went in the direction of the NDA and then the physics.
09:49The ability to put resources on the ground, organization on the ground.
09:53And yes, the 10,000 rupees, let's not underestimate the power of giving 10,000 rupees even while voting is on to women in the country.
10:03I mean, the EC has said, according to me, a very dangerous precedent, but it is there and it worked.
10:09So, for all factors, arithmetic, chemistry and physics, it was advantage NDA.
10:14This electoral verdict in Bihar is no surprise, unlike Maharashtra and Haryana last year, which were clearly major surprises, if not shocks, Maria.
10:27Razeeb, I'm looking at actually the vote share for the NDA in the Lok Sabha.
10:33It is at 48%, similar to what they managed this time around, in assembly elections.
10:37In fact, 2% down, Maria, this time it was 46 point something is the vote percentage in Vidhan Sabha, it was 48% Lok Sabha.
10:47Lok Sabha, the Modi factor also gets highlighted, let's not forget that.
10:52So, I think in the Lok Sabha, the Modi factor was overwhelming along with the broad alliance.
10:57In the Vidhan Sabha, the NITISH factor and the 10,000 rupees for women along with the broad alliance was overwhelming.
11:05So, either way, what we've seen, Maria, in three of the last four elections in Bihar, massive majorities for whichever side NITISH Kumar is on.
11:14The one exception was 2020, but remember that was the election in the shadow of COVID, in the shadow of migrants having to leave their homes, feeling dislocated, alienated, angry.
11:26And there was an anti-incumbency of sorts that Tejasvi Adav, to some extent, successfully capitalized on with his 10 lakh jobs promise.
11:34This time, on the other hand, you didn't see the anti-incumbency.
11:38So, Bihar has consistently chosen whoever out of the two of the three main parties come together.
11:45They have a huge advantage at the moment in Bihar.
11:48And I don't think that's good.
11:50So, the real challenge for what will happen in Bihar is what happens after NITISH.
11:54Today, he's being sworn in for the 10th time.
11:56Will he be around five years from now?
11:59He'll be 80 then.
12:00We don't know.
12:01And I think this five years period of NITISH Kumar will therefore see some level of turbulence and jostling for power as to how do you work out a post-NITISH LALU Bihar?
12:16Before I let you go, your famous or personal anecdote of NITISH Kumar, your last conversation with him and what was the nature of that conversation?
12:25That's an interesting question.
12:29What always strikes me is that when he actually chose to give up the seat of chief ministership in 2013, he rang me up.
12:37Yes.
12:38And insisted that I come and do an interview with him.
12:41I mean, he's not always the most media friendly.
12:44But that day, he had laid it out for me, lovely breakfast at his residence at Vanane Magh.
12:51And we chatted and he gave an interview.
12:54And he was fiercely critical, of course, of then BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
13:00And at the end of the day, he said, I hope you will carry this interview without editing.
13:04You don't do editing.
13:05That was NITISH Kumar in 2013.
13:08In 2025, he's not even available to the media for an interview.
13:13He's not spoken even once in any kind of one-on-one, not even a real kind of soundbite interaction.
13:19So, from the NITISH Kumar that I saw, at that time, he was positioning himself as an alternative to Narendra Modi and hoping to make a bid for the centre.
13:28I think NITISH Kumar always saw himself as being someone who could go beyond Bihar.
13:33At the end of the day, what's happened?
13:36He's been limited to Bihar.
13:37So, I think that is something that he will always see as missing on his CV, that he could not really make a serious prime ministerial bid.
13:50But in the history of Bihar, I think he will go down as one of their most durable and important chief ministers.
13:59And I'll just say one last thing.
14:01One of the things that struck me this time, Maria, in Patna, and you were there, was the museum.
14:05Now, to craft a museum of that kind, the new Bihar museum, using, of course, with his bureaucrats, but just the imagination to do that and do it so successfully, it's a beautiful museum, I think is what NITISH Kumar could have achieved.
14:22Had he not been forced by the kind of politics that's played out to become a survivor and not a true leader in that sense.
14:31I think by the end, he was more a survivor rather than the leader he should have been.
14:37Let's see what Bihar has in store for it when NITISH Kumar takes oath now.
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