Will BJP contest Bihar elections under Nitish Kumar’s leadership! Speculations are gaining strength

Despite Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s health issues, the BJP is clear that the NDA will contest the October-November assembly elections under his leadership. Relying on his credibility and good governance issue, the BJP hopes that it will benefit from the concessions announced for the state in the Union Budget and more generosity will be given to farmers, women, poor and youth in the coming days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Bhagalpur in Bihar on February 24 to distribute the 18th installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi to farmers across the country. About 83 lakh farmers of Bihar will participate in this. Modi will also interact with the beneficiaries virtually. After this, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects worth about Rs 15000 crore. Top BJP sources said that Nitish Kumar’s repeated wrong statements among the public are a matter of concern, but his hold on the voters in Bihar makes him the top choice to lead the JDU-BJP alliance in the state in the upcoming elections. The BJP will try to manage his public presence with the help of top JDU leaders but the NDA will fight the elections under his leadership. With the BJP falling short of the 273 majority mark in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Modi-led NDA government is dependent on the JDU, which has 12 Lok Sabha MPs, and other parties like the TDP (16), LJP-RV (5) for its survival. Angering Nitish, who always has the option of joining hands with the RJD again, will put the Modi government’s survival at risk. This is why the BJP is left with no option but to go with the JDU supremo. In the JDU, there is no other leader who has the charisma or followership like Nitish Kumar, which rules out other possibilities.