Purnea/Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish stunned his audienceThursday on the last day of electioneering. Nitish Kumar said that the
Bihar assembly elections underway were his last. The NDA’s chief ministerial candidate was addressing a rally at Dhamdaha in Purnea
district. Campaigning for the last of the three-phase election ended Thursday.
“Today is the last day of campaign. Polling will take place day after tomorrow. This is my last election (ye mera antim chunav hai). All is
well that ends well (ant bhala to sab bhala),” said Kumar. His outstretched arms betrayed the emotions he concealed behind his
smiling face.
The crowds were stunned into silence for a few seconds. Then they they erupted in applause for the 69-year-old leader who has ruled Bihar
for nearly 15 years.
This is for the first time that the socialist warhorse has talked about quitting electoral politics. Kumar has ruled Bihar for close to a decade-
and-half.
Kumar’s detractors reacted with unbridled glee. “Nitish Kumar has realised that he has become tired…that he cannot handle Bihar. Today,
he has understood the ground reality and decided to quit,” RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav told reporters.
Chirag Paswan, the LJP chief, who led his party out of the NDA in Bihar just before the election, contended Kumar’s comments at his rally on the last day of canvassing would have demoralised JD(U) candidates even further.
“I don't know who advised him to make this statement at his last rally.
When the leader runs away from the battleground, the contestants willdefinitely be demoralised,” Paswan observed.
Some in the JD(U) said what Kumar meant was that it was his last public meeting of the election and not the last election of his political career.
They, however, chose to be anonymous.
A fourth term victory in the polls will enable Kumar to surpass the record of Bihar’s first chief minister Shrikrishna Singh, who was at the
helm for little under 15 years.
Kumar has been the chief minister since November 2005, barring the nine months when his confidant Jitan Ram Manjhi had occupied the
office as a stop gap arrangement after he stepped down in May, 2014, owning moral responsibility for the JD(U)’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha
polls.
PNN/Agencies