Nitish exit sets tough benchmark for BJP successor

Patna: The BJP is likely to get its first chief minister, after CM Nitish Kumar on Thursday filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha — a move seen as his stepping aside to fulfil a long-pending personal wish.

However, his exit from the top post has set a tough benchmark for any BJP successor to match the governance model he built as ‘Sushasan Babu’.Nitish’s decision also fulfils the BJP’s long-held desire to have its own chief minister in Bihar, as articulated earlier by deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha at former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s shradhanjali sabha ahead of the assembly polls.Sources say the script was finalised in Delhi before Nitish decided to hang up his boots and opt for a Rajya Sabha berth.

This was evident in the way he greeted Union home minister Amit Shah at his residence on Thursday, and Shah reciprocated with a bow — a gesture widely read as political signalling.Given Nitish’s age — he turned 75 on March 1 — such a transition was expected, but the timing, coming just four months after the JD(U)-BJP alliance won a thumping majority under his leadership last Nov, surprised many.While RJD national working president Tejashwi Prasad Yadav alleged that the BJP forced Nitish to take this decision, those familiar with Nitish’s thinking say the JD(U) chief has always aimed to set new benchmarks.

The idea of sending him to the Rajya Sabha was floated as early as 2022. Tejashwi termed the move “against the people’s mandate for “2025 se 30 phir se Nitish” and said the BJP would install a “rubber-stamp CM”, as it allegedly did in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.Union minister Giriraj Singh countered the charge, saying Nitish had expressed similar intentions three to four years ago, but elections intervened. “Even this time, no one can send him anywhere.

He has made his own decision. Whoever forms the govt in Bihar, the CM will be chosen by him,” he said, accusing the RJD of shedding crocodile tears. “Till Wednesday, the opposition was saying he is ill. Today they are doing drama,” he added.Political analysts believe that if Nitish launches his son, Nishant Kumar, into active politics and makes him deputy CM — as speculated — it could give the opposition fresh ammunition against both him and the BJP, since Nitish’s politics has long been built on opposing parivarvad.For the BJP, the road ahead is challenging. It must retain the caste arithmetic and the crucial EBC-women voter base that Nitish carefully nurtured over the years. As senior JD(U) leader and parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary noted, “Under CM Nitish Kumar, Bihar has established a new identity of development, good governance, and social justice. His work, especially in women’s empowerment, is an inspiration for the country.

Bihar will always remember the historic journey from jungle raj to good governance.”Another key challenge for the BJP will be maintaining smooth coordination with the state bureaucracy to fast-track the NDA's development agenda aimed at making Bihar a developed state.