New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president J.P. Nadda has visited Bihar three times in two months and met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar several times, participating in official programmes and visiting his home. The reason? The stability of the Modi government’s third term, which lies partly in the hands of Nitish, an unpredictable ally.
Given the vulnerability and high stakes, party leaders from both sides say there has been a significant shift in the BJP’s strategy in dealing with the Janata Dal (United) chief with the top-level BJP leadership interacting with him directly this time.
In the 2024 general elections, the BJP fell short of the majority mark of 272 seats, forcing it to rely on National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner JD(U)’s 12 seats—and the 16 seats won by Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP)—to come back to power. Nitish, who has a history of switching sides, had returned to the NDA fold just months before the Lok Sabha elections.
In September, after taking charge as Union Health Minister, BJP president Nadda made a two-day visit to Bihar. It came two days after Nitish met Tejashwi Yadav—eight months after he broke his alliance with Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and joined hands with the BJP. This sparked considerable speculation about potential shifts in strategy and alliances ahead of next year’s assembly polls.
At the time, Nadda went to meet Nitish at his residence, and the two later participated in two official programmes. The Bihar CM assured Nadda that he had committed the mistake of allying with RJD twice but would now stay with NDA, highlighting that his association with the BJP goes back to 1995, reports said at the time.
This occurred against the backdrop of the BJP rolling back its plan for lateral entry into UPSC and sending the controversial Waqf bill to a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) amid objections from the Opposition and alliance partners, including the JD(U).
Nadda visited Bihar, again, on 29 September, to review the party’s membership drive where he met MLAs and senior members of the party, though not Nitish. On Thursday, the BJP president made his third, more politically symbolic, visit to Bihar. He joined Kumar to oversee the celebrations of Chhath Puja—the most important festival in the state—along the banks of the Ganga.
A picture of Nadda and Nitish celebrating Chhath together sent a message of NDA unity ahead of the 2025 assembly elections. It also indicated the desire of BJP’s top leadership to keep Nitish happy to protect the party’s interests in the assembly elections and, also, so that the central government can continue running smoothly.
Also Read: Giriraj Singh’s planned ‘Hindu Swabhiman Yatra’ in Bihar becomes another BJP-JD(U) flashpoint
Echoes of an uneasy relationship
BJP state leaders highlighted how Nitish shared a good relationship with the late Arun Jaitley, who was in charge of the state unit earlier, but not with Bhupendra Yadav, who was the state unit head in 2014 and with whom Nitish has shared an uneasy relationship since the 2020 assembly elections.
A senior BJP state leader told ThePrint, “Nitish did not feel threatened or a lack of trust when Arun Jaitley was in charge of the state. Even when Jaitley was not in-charge, he was an influential figure in the BJP and played a role in making decisions regarding Bihar. Nitish and Jaitley’s relationship was warm and based on trust, even when Bhupendra Yadav was put in charge of the state in 2014.”
This was evidenced by the fact that when Nitish made a comeback in 2017 after switching sides from RJD, he called Jaitley for rapprochement.
“But after Jaitley’s sudden demise in 2019, Bhupendra Yadav first cornered the senior leader of the party in Bihar, pushed for Yadav leadership (such as Nityanand Rai), and later used Chirag Paswan to downsize Nitish Kumar in 2020 assembly elections. Nitish was so miffed after the assembly election that he refused to meet with Bhupendra Yadav after that,” the senior BJP leader added.
In 2022, despite Yadav being state in-charge, BJP’s central leadership had to send senior party leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to meet Nitish when JD(U) opposed the Agnipath scheme and, also, when the BJP realised that Nitish was going to switch sides. On both occasions, despite having made up his mind, Nitish warmly received Pradhan, Jaitley’s protégé, at his residence to discuss the issues since the Bihar CM shared a good relationship with him.
The BJP leader added, “Even when Anant Kumar was in charge of the 2015 assembly elections and Pradhan was co-incharge, both shared a good chemistry.”
Nitish’s great comeback
With the JD(U)’s declining popularity in Bihar and the BJP’s strengthening position both in the state and across India, Nitish was all but sidelined. In fact, in 2023, senior BJP leader and Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah said that the doors of the BJP were forever shut for Nitish. However, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections allowed him to make a great comeback.
Still, while the BJP has changed the party’s strategy according to the JD(U) new situation, Nitish has not forgotten the treatment meted out to him by Shah and Yadav.
A JD(U) state leader told ThePrint, “Nitish kept the reins of power with himself during the introduction of Waqf bill, when Union Minister Lalan Yadav (Rajiv Ranjan Singh) praised the Modi government more than required and did not insist on sending the bill to the JPC as the TDP had said.”
With some JD(U) leaders raising concerns over the bill, it was a cause of confusion over the party’s stand. “Vijay Choudhary was asked to clear the confusion that the JD(U) will protect the rights of minority Muslims and a JD(U) minister (State Minority Affairs Minister Zama Khan) was asked to announce a scheme for Muslims on Waqf land.”
Furthermore, the JD(U) leader said, “Recently when BJP MP Giriraj Singh stoked Hindutva polarisation during their yatra in Muslim-dominated districts, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar clearly stressed during an NDA meeting that there will be no compromise on communal harmony, whether for Muslim votes or the alliance.”
In October, JD(U) criticised Giriraj Singh’s proposal for a four-day ‘Hindu Swabhiman Yatra’ across five districts with a significant Muslim population, saying it was an attempt to engineer riots in Bihar ahead of the 2025 assembly elections.
“Even Lalan Yadav took a dig at Giriraj Singh, saying Giriraj ji has his own USP but the NDA must not compromise communal harmony. Giriraj ignored the jibe in that meeting. Nitish is the most senior politician in the state and the BJP has realised that senior people should be in touch with the chief minister. Nadda knows Bihar better than many in the BJP. It is good for the alliance that he is making an effort to nurture relationships in the state,” the leader added.
Important for synergy in the alliance
Amid the BJP outreach, Nitish held a meeting of NDA leaders in the state, for the first time since the 2020 assembly polls, to project unity and to allow for the formulation of an alliance strategy.
JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad welcomed the BJP’s efforts to build better coordination between alliance partners in the state. “It’s good that top BJP leadership has been visiting Bihar for smooth synergy in the alliance.”
“J.P. Nadda was born in Bihar and he studied here, so he has an old connection with the state. He is well aware of Bihar’s politics and, since there is an assembly next, there should be good chemistry in the NDA,” he added.
A senior central BJP leader said, “Since the situation has changed and the BJP needs Nitish Kumar more, it’s necessary to talk to him directly. Taking into consideration Nitish’s seniority, someone at a senior level should keep speaking to him from time to time because sometimes state in-charges lack stature or things are lost in translation.”
“In Bihar, Nadda’s past credentials give him more room to maintain a smooth relationship with Nitish,” the leader added.
BJP Bihar spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel said, “Next year there is an assembly election and knowing Nadda ji’s Bihar connection, he is meeting with the alliance partner and spending more time in the state for more synergy and smooth coordination in the alliance.”
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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