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"SUSHIL the Simple, Nitish the Neatest, Lalu the Lovable," was a slogan that reverberated through college campuses in Bihar during the mid-1970s. It was a portrayal of the political personalities of three young leaders who were "heralding the Total Revolution" led by the legendary Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.
The slogan encapsulated the attributes of the leaders. Sushil Kumar Modi was the simple, matter-of-fact organisation man; Nitish Kumar, the engineer cum agriculturist, was the blemishless, clear-thinking strategist, and Lalu Prasad was the charismatic champion of the masses.
Many people in Bihar felt that the triumvirate would together dictate the course of the State's politics in the days to come. Each was perceived to play a specific role that was supposed to be mutually complementary. The three leaders did not belie the expectations. But the hopes about a united effort evaporated in the course of their political journey.
The "lovable" Lalu Prasad stole a march over his other two colleagues, aided by his rustic charm and the numerical superiority of members of the Yadav caste to which he belongs. The "neatest" Nitish Kumar had no hesitation in accepting the pre-eminence of the charismatic Lalu Prasad during his first stint as Chief Minister and was one of his strongest supporters. But, over a period of time, the strategist felt that the mass leader had become arrogant and imperious. This led to differences between the two leaders.
The separation between Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar was formalised in 1994 with the formation of the Samata Party. From then on, Nitish Kumar has been toiling to build an effective socio-political coalition against his friend-turned-foe. It was a bitter struggle for over 11 years, characterised by unlikely alliances and repeated reverses for Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar shocked a large number of his secular friends and followers when he joined hands with the "ideologically incompatible" Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and persisted with the alliance even after the Gujarat pogrom of 2002.
In 1999 and 2000, Nitish Kumar did secure limited victories against Lalu Prasad but none of these had the stamp of finality. The first of these was in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections when the Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance humbled Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by winning four-fifths of the seats in the State. But the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could not repeat the performance in the Assembly elections that followed. Lalu Prasad bounced back with the highest number of seats in a hung Assembly.
Yet, the then Governor invited Nitish Kumar to form the government. He even took the oath of office, apparently in the hope that a majority could be cobbled up in due course. But his hopes were belied, and after seven days in power he resigned as a majority remained elusive.
With this setback, the perception gained ground that Nitish Kumar would remain a perennial aspirant for the Chief Minister's position. Five years later, however, the 54-year-old leader with the grey stubble has negated such prophesies by rustling up a coalition consisting of representatives of almost the entire upper-caste population as well as large sections of Other Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Castes (EBC), including his own Kurmi community.
IN a sense, Nitish Kumar's "delayed arrival" to the numero uno position in Bihar's politics is in keeping with the vicissitudes of his political life. Despite being a popular student leader in the 1970s, he was unable to win the first election in 1977. He was the Janata Party candidate from Harnaut Assembly constituency in his native Nalanda district but lost despite an anti-Congress wave sweeping the State. He faced the same fate three years later. `Vaidya' Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh's son had to wait for five more years to get elected to the Bihar Assembly.
It was in 1987 that Nitish Kumar came to be noticed at the national level. That year he became the president of the Yuva Lok Dal. Two years later, with his active promotion by former Deputy Prime Minister and Haryana Jat leader Devi Lal, he was given the ticket to contest from the Barh constituency against Congress heavyweight and former Union Minister Ramlakhan Singh Yadav. The country was once again witnessing an anti-Congress wave, whipped up mainly by V.P. Singh, and this time it did not bypass the soft-spoken leader. That win seemed to work as a lucky charm and Nitish Kumar has got re-elected to the Lok Sabha without a break since then. He, of course, did suffer a setback in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections when the RJD's Vijay Krishna defeated him from Barh but he won the adjoining Nalanda seat vacated by Janata Dal (United) president George Fernandes.
Nitish Kumar held a ministerial position for the first time in 1990, in the National Front government at the Centre, led by V.P. Singh. He was the Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives. His association with the BJP elevated him to a Cabinet Minister's rank. When the NDA came to power at the Centre in 1998, Nitish Kumar became the Railway Minister with additional charge of Surface Transport. He resigned a year later owning moral responsibility for the Gaisal train accident near Siliguri in West Bengal, which claimed hundreds of lives. He was, however, brought back into government as Minister for Agriculture. He held the position from November 1999 to March 2000 and again from May 2000 to March 2001 before heading the Railway Ministry for a second time from March 2001 to May 2004.
Nitish Kumar's political journey has seen many ups and downs as well as several uncharacteristic alliances and associations, but it is to his credit that throughout his political career he has been able to, more or less, retain the "neatest" tag he had as a young leader. In a political firmament where familial politics and "children rise" are the norm, Nitish Kumar's wife and son are virtually unknown, even to his political associates, and lead their own private lives. The fact that a sizable number of Muslims reposed faith in him despite his longstanding association with the BJP is an unmistakable acknowledgment of his secular credentials.
However, there is a stream of opinion, even among his ardent supporters, that Nitish Kumar is not able to strike the right balance between his periodic proclivity to fall into an `image trap' of the "neatest" and the compulsions of the realpolitik he practises (or is compelled to practise) on a day-to-day basis. The advocates of this view also hold that the moderate leader's success as Chief Minister will depend largely on his capacity to strike the right balance between these contrasting personal and professional propensities.
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