Nitish Kumar’s Last Hurrah: Will ‘Sushasan Babu’ abdicate Bihar throne with a last Cabinet meeting?

As Nitish Kumar took oath as Rajya Sabha member yesterday in a small, but star-studded ceremony in front of Vice-President and Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament, C.P. Radhakrishnan in his chamber, nostalgia has hit the party and Kumar’s long-time colleagues and juniors.

Highly placed sources in JDU told The Statesman that party members and Kumar’s ministerial colleagues from Bihar want him to preside over a last Cabinet meeting day after tomorrow, April 13.

Advertisement

“While we proposed this, Nitish ji, the man and the stalwart that he is, gave his characteristic smile, eyes filled with a sense of achievement and an acceptance of his new innings, retorted: ‘Ab kya cabinet meeting lena hai… ab jo ayega wo lega…’,” said a top JDU functionary present at the meeting.

Nitish Kumar is to resign from his position as Bihar chief minister on April 13.

Even as Kumar proceeds to Delhi after over two decades—he left for Bihar in 2001—his grip on the party remains ever strong, even more so.

Sources, however, indicated that while Nitish Kumar might not be in a mood for a last Cabinet meeting, he could certainly be persuaded for the same so that some pending official issues could be cleared by him.

“You have to understand that even if Nitish Kumar is moving to Rajya Sabha, his legacy is so strong that he will always remain in command. Even on the question of who will succeed him, despite that fact that the new Cm will be from BJP, his permission for the new face is central to JDU decision-making. It is the figure of Nitish Kumar that is the glue and the raison d’ etre of the party,” the JDU top official added.

Meanwhile, deliberations are on within the BJP for selecting the new face to lead the Bihar government as the BJP officially steps into the role of the bigger alliance partner. Hitherto, as reported by The Statesman, deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary has emerged as the consensus candidate, even as certain developments in the past couple of days have given rise to speculation and possibility of scenarios other than that.

The announcement of the new CM has been slated for April 15.