The last few months have witnessed a major tilt from the Janata Dal leaders. The so-called disciples of legendary socialist leader JP Narayan are coming together to form a formidable alliance against the BJP. The dress rehearsal has been at Karnataka where HD Kumaraswamy’s JD(S) joined hands with Congress.

In the bypolls in UP-SP, BSP, RLD have all come together with Congress in a rock solid alliance which is any day ahead of BJP’s line up. But the glitch remains with Nitish Kumar, probably one of the few Janata Dal leaders who have a clean and transparent image. Currently, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) is in an alliance with the BJP in Bihar.

But that isn’t the end of the world. Seasoned political observers are well aware of the fact that Nitish Kumar has national ambitions and he is a far better candidate than Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee or even young Akhilesh Yadav.

Interestingly, he is yet to voice anything regarding the anti-BJP political developments in the country and that indeed makes the whole drama a trickier one.

Very recently, in a JD(U) core committee meeting it was decided that Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the state, is the face of NDA in Bihar. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats and this assertion is a gentle yet dominating reminder that JD(U) is definitely looking for a maximum number of seats to compete with.

Let’s not forget the fact that barring JD(U) and BJP, there is Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP as well. Nitish Kumar is absolutely aware of the fact that BJP is not in a tough wicket rather looking perplexed at the present moment. In 2015 Assembly Elections in Bihar, JD(U) won 71 seats against BJP’s 53.

Thus Nitish Kumar’s indirect announcement comes at a very important juncture of time. Anyhow, BJP also has solid reasons to have upper hand in ticket sharing also.

In the last Lok Sabha Elections, JD(U) fought independently and managed to win only 2 Lok Sabha seats. Thus with 15% vote share, Nitish Kumar is not truly the deciding factor in the Bihar election and this is where BJP – JD(U) will have a tough task to settle down.

There is minimal chance that Nitish Kumar is going to leave NDA right now. Otherwise, he will be overshadowed RJD and other local leaders.

In no way, Nitish Kumar is going to accept a diminishing role in Bihar politics. But the unpredictability of Nitish Kumar is always something which makes everyone guessing and that can indeed be the deciding factor next year.

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