Bihar Politics 2025: The bright face of Grand Alliance has decided, but will Nitish become CM again? Why did BJP change its step?

The Grand Alliance held a joint press conference in Patna, the capital of Bihar, on Thursday. Thirteen days before the first phase of voting, a stage was prepared for this press conference at the Maurya Hotel in Patna, with 11 chairs and a large poster. The poster had the election symbols of all the constituent parties of the alliance as well as a large photograph of Tejashwi Yadav. Photo, name of Tejashwi Yadav and slogan “Tejashwi Sarkar”. It was announced from the same platform that if the Grand Alliance wins, Tejashwi Yadav will be the chief ministerial candidate. Tejashwi Yadav expressed gratitude to the constituent parties of the Grand Alliance for announcing his name as the Chief Ministerial candidate. Tejashwi Yadav was declared the chief ministerial face at a time when candidates from alliance partners were pitted against each other on 10 seats and speculations of a split were rife. Congress allies in other states have also raised questions over the decision not to declare Tejashwi as the chief ministerial face. Questions were also raised as to why the leaders of the Grand Alliance did not hold rallies or meetings. Tejashwi was announced as the chief ministerial face at the same time when Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were about to hold their first joint rally. After Tejashwi was declared as the chief ministerial face of the Grand Alliance, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary said that it was already known that Lalu Yadav would not give power to anyone other than his family. He attacked Lalu Yadav and said that they keep fielding candidates from each other’s seats until their wish is fulfilled. Samrat Chaudhary said that Lalu Yadav is resorting to racketeering to make his sons candidates. It clearly shows that Lalu Yadav only wants to make his family the face of the Chief Minister. Giriraj Singh said that somehow Lalu Yadav made this announcement for his sons by pleading. Let Mungerilal dream, we will see the show. Meanwhile, Jan Suraj leader Prashant Kishore taunted and said that everyone knows that if Lalu Yadav’s Jungle Raj comes back, Tejashwi Yadav will become the Chief Minister. Both the NDA and the BJP criticized the Grand Alliance’s announcement of Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial face. Calling it the return of Jungle Raj and Lalu Yadav’s politics of extortion, he called it an attempt to hide the rift within the alliance. Meanwhile, the strategy of the Grand Alliance is told differently. What is the strategy of the grand alliance? The strategy of the Grand Alliance behind making Tejashwi Yadav the chief ministerial candidate is to expand its vote bank. Declaring Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial face is not only an attempt to mobilize Yadav voters but also to send a message to Nishad voters by making Mukesh Sahni the deputy chief minister. The move to appoint another deputy chief minister is creating tension, indicating that he could be from any community. Another strategy is to intensify the Bihar election debate: Tejashwi versus whom? One strategy is to take advantage of the tension among JDU loyal voters over whether Nitish Kumar will become the chief minister. This is the reason why Tejashwi Yadav changed his tone regarding Nitish Kumar. Tejashwi said that injustice is being done to Nitish Kumar. He said, “We have said from the beginning that BJP will not make Nitish Kumar the chief minister again. He has not been declared as the face of the chief ministerial post.” Tejashwi also mentioned Amit Shah’s statement in which he said that the MPs will jointly choose the chief minister. He said that he would like to know from Amit Shah that he is saying this only this time and not the last time. Each time he declared the face of the post of Chief Minister. Why is Nitish’s name not disclosed this time? What about two decades of electoral history? If we look at Bihar’s electoral history over the last two decades, the picture has been the same: wherever Nitish Kumar goes, there goes power. The real reason for this is believed to be Nitish Kumar’s strong hold on the vote bank of Kurmi, Koeri and extremely backward classes, which is around 43 percent. In the Bihar elections of 2015, when Nitish Kumar contested with RJD, the Grand Alliance got 71 percent votes from Kurmi, 31 percent from Koeri and 35 percent of votes from the extremely backward class. In the 2020 elections, when Nitish was with the NDA, the NDA got 81 percent of Kurmi votes, 51 percent of Koeri and 58 percent of the Extremely Backward Class votes. Now Tejashwi Yadav is taking advantage of the tension created by Amit Shah’s statement about Nitish Kumar becoming the Chief Minister and is said to be an attempt to break into this vote bank. Tejashwi said, “We were clear. The question is, based on what Amit Shah said, who will be the face of the NDA?” He said that Amit Shah has clearly said that he will not make Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister; The legislature party will elect the CM. BJP does not want Nitish Kumar to become CM. To CM’s question, Giriraj Singh said Nitish Kumar is there and will stay there. NDA leaders have started presenting their views, but will the NDA formally declare Nitish Kumar as the CM face? Now questions are being raised: Will the NDA have to change its strategy after this move by Tejashwi Yadav? Apart from announcing to contest the election under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, will the NDA now also have to openly say that Nitish Kumar will be the CM face?