Nitish’s age, son’s entry become talking points in Bihar politics

Nitish’s age, son’s entry become talking points in Bihar politics

Nitish’s age, son’s entry become talking points in Bihar politics ByArun Kumar, Patna Mar 02, 2025 10:05 PM IST Share Via Copy Link Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, turning 75, faces opposition attacks on his age and health, while his son Nishant's political entry sparks speculation about party leadership.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar turned 75 on Monday. He is understandably aging, as the nature does with everyone, but he remains in command in the state, and politically indispensable too.

Nitish’s age, son’s entry become talking points in Bihar politics

But for the first time, the Opposition is making his age and health a political issue with direct and relentless attacks on him. Yet, beyond rhetoric, there is a method in it -- everyone knows the worth of Nitish Kumar to tilt the balance and the impact of his absence.

Despite his flip-flop in the last seven years from the Grand Alliance (GA) to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kumar has remained pivotal to the Bihar politics and has been able to play his cards deftly to be always one up.

JD-U leaders say there is a lot more left in Nitish Kumar, and so does the BJP, but the way there has been a concerted move to initiate his non-political son Nishant Kumar, 49, into politics and get prepared to take over the reins of the party points to a line of thinking in the party “to see their future beyond Nitish”.

For the BJP, Bihar has remained the Achilles’ heel, as despite being part of the government mostly since 2005, it has not been able to win in Bihar on its own to form the government, and was stumped at the peak of Narendra Modi’s popularity in 2015 and its strategy failed to resurrect its fortune in 2020.

It has reasons to take measured steps due to the more recent experience. The Lok Sabha election results in Bihar last year again underlined the importance of Nitish Kumar in the state’s predominantly triangular politics and underlined his uncanny knack of bouncing back just when people start writing him off.

Whether Nishant will join mainstream politics or not and when is for him and Nitish Kumar to decide, but the sudden push for Nishant from the JD-U as well as the Opposition is doing more harm than good in the run up to election to Nitish Kumar, who may not be at his best but still remains as crucial to Bihar politics as ever.

The Opposition RJD has, however, started playing it up to fan insecurity, with leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav describing Nishant as his brother, while Jan Suraj Party founder Prashant Kishor has been directly attacking Nitish over the latter’s health.

“Nishant should do it fast, else JD-U will be lost. He is my brother and I will like him to join politics fast. Otherwise BJP will devour JD-U. In fact, some people in the BJP and the JD-U are trying to prevent his entry,” he said, but added that JD-U is a party formed by late Sharad Yadav in an apparent bid to play down Nitish’s contribution.

Congress has also started supporting Nishant Theory. “Nishant’s entry is important for the survival of the JD-U,” said Congress spokesman Rajesh Rathor.

Political analysts say that Tejashwi may have a reason for backing Nishant, as it would bring curtains on the debate on ‘dynastic politics’ against which Nitish Kumar always remained so vocal about and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also targeted it with in every election rally.

Kishor has been sharper in his attack on Nitish, as he has been declaring that the “Bihar CM is no more fit to hold the important chair, as he is physically tired and mentally retired”.

“I appeal to the people not to let anyone from the JD-U win, as he has been reduced to a mere mask of the BJP now. He just wants to be the CM - be it with the lantern (RJD) or the lotus (BJP) - and that should not happen now,” he told media persons while announcing his party’s mega rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on April 11.

There has also been growing support for Nishant even from within the NDA, with the Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) chief and union minister Chirag Paswan and HAM -S chief and union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi also welcoming the move.

Nishant, on his part, has been restrained at this stage about himself, though for the first time he is coming out to speak to media and seek support for his father for all the good work for another term as CM.

Former professor and dean, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Pushpendra said that there was a lurking fear and uncertainty not just in the JD-U, but also in the Opposition of state politics “ beyond Notish Kumar”, as the Bihar CM has had an uncanny knack of playing the balancing game without having overwhelming vote bank.

“JD-U is understandably aware of the reality that minus Nitish it would be difficult. There are three types of leadership, as Max Weber put it. One of them is charismatic, which the likes of Nitish, Lalu Prasad, Jayalalitha, Mamta Bannerjee provided, but the problem with such leadership is that it has no second in line. All regional parties grapple with it,” he added.

Pushpendra said that the biggest fear with such parties is the huge gap between the charismatic leader and the prospective second, third or fourth in line. “The leader dominates as long as he is in command and and after him there are too many claimants to trigger inner fight or dissent. One way of stemming it is to bring in a family member, which symbolically becomes the uniting force,” he added.

He said that the Opposition getting euphoric about Nishant was also due to the fear of uncertainty, as it was aware of the Nitish Kumar contribution in keeping Bihar largely untouched by the BJP wave despite forming the government with it. “Once Nitish is not there, it would be difficult for the RJD also in direct fight with the BJP,” he added.