Modi ‘challenger’ quits as chief minister of Indian state of Bihar

Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister and a potentially credible opposition challenger to prime minister Narendra Modi, resigned on Wednesday in a significant re-alignment with implications for India’s national political landscape.

Mr Kumar, who led an electoral alliance that inflicted a crushing defeat on Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar’s 2015 state legislative assembly elections, now appears poised for an imminent alliance with the BJP, which has offered to throw its support behind him. 

The alliance would be a political coup for the BJP and would neutralise a widely respected political veteran, who could have served as a unifying figure for India’s weak and fractious opposition as the country heads towards general elections due to be held in 2019. 

Bihar’s “grand alliance” of opposition parties was seen as an example of how India’s enfeebled opposition could come together to challenge Mr Modi, a forceful personality who dominates India’s political landscape like no other politician since Indira Gandhi.

But in recent weeks, the alliance had begun to fray, as tensions rose over the corruption allegations against the son of another coalition member, Lalu Prasad Yadav, a former Bihar chief minister who had himself been jailed for corruption. 

Mr Kumar, who has a strong reputation for his personal probity, had sought the resignation of Mr Yadav’s son, Tejaswi, who was serving as the state’s deputy chief minister, but his demand was refused, leading to tensions within the ruling coalition. 

“The situation is such that it is impossible to work any more,” Mr Kumar said, as he confirmed his abrupt, and unexpected, resignation. 

His decision was welcomed by Mr Modi, who took to Twitter with gushing endorsement of his erstwhile political rival’s resignation. 

“Many congratulations to Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption,” the premier tweeted in Hindi. “The 1.25bn citizens of the country are supporting and welcoming his honesty.” 

“For a bright future of the country — especially Bihar, rising above political differences to fight corruption unitedly is the demand of the time and the nation,” Mr Modi added in a second Hindi tweet. 

Mr Kumar responded to the premier shortly afterwards, tweeting his “heartfelt thanks to the honourable prime minister for his reaction through his tweet on the decision that I have taken”. 

Meanwhile, BJP legislators in Bihar said they had already called to offer their support to the political veteran to form a new state administration in Bihar that Mr Kumar would continue to lead. 

Mr Kumar was previously aligned with the BJP for 17 years, including during two previous terms as chief minister, when he won accolades for his efforts to modernise what has been one of India’s most backward states. 

But Mr Kumar severed his alliance with the BJP in 2013, after it selected Mr Modi, whose image was tarnished by his failure to stop bloody communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, to lead its national election campaign.

Opposition parties’ failure to unify in state elections in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year was seen as facilitating the BJP’s sweeping victory.

Additional reporting by Jyotsna Singh