'Bihar Ki Beti' Meira Kumar Has Been Nominated Only To Lose: Nitish Kumar On Presidential Polls

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today made it clear that while he deeply respects Meira Kumar, the opposition's candidate for President, he will not reconsider his decision to back Ram Nath Kovind, the BJP's nominee for the country's top post.  

Mr Kumar drove up this evening to the home of political partner Lalu Yadav, who has warned him that his decision to back Mr Kovind is "a historic blunder". The Chief Minister was a guest at Lalu Yadav's iftar party to mark the breaking of the daily fast during Ramzan.

"I have a lot of respect for Meira Kumarji, but 'Bihar ki beti' has been nominated only to lose," said Mr Kumar, who has been repeatedly reminded by his partners that Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, is a leader from his state and so he should back "Bihar's daughter." He asked why the Congress had not picked Ms Kumar as its candidate for President when it twice had a chance to ensure its nominee would win. 

The chief minister also asserted that his decision to break ranks with a 17-member bloc of opposition parties on the President would have no impact on his alliance with Lalu Yadav and the Congress in Bihar. 
 As an opposition A-lister, Nitish Kumar's decision earlier this week to side with the ruling party, threatened to short circuit the opposition's plans to unitedly fight the BJP in what it has declared as "a battle ideologies."

In the hours after Nitish Kumar's crossover, other opposition leaders like Sharad Pawar and Mayawati seemed shaky about their remaining with the opposition front, but yesterday, they were persuaded to stay on at a meeting at which it was decided that Meira Kumar will be the opposition's candidate.

Like Ram Nath Kovind, who is 71, Meira Kumar, who is 72, is a Dalit. 

Nitish Kumar said today that his decision to support Ram Nath Kovind was "well thought out." He has praised Mr Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar till he was nominated, for working with immaculate neutrality. Unsaid was that as a Dalit, Ram Nath Kovind represents a caste crucial for the Chief Minister to remain in power. By picking Meira Kumar, a Dalit woman, five-time MP and former minister whose family is from Bihar (her father Jagjivan Ram was a national leader and prominent freedom fighter), the opposition tried in part to trip Nitish Kumar. 

The contest for President will not be a close one. The BJP and its allies, with the support of a string of regional parties, have got more than 60 percent of the vote lined up. But the opposition wants to prove it will not back the promotion to President of a long-time BJP leader and that it can, despite considerable see-sawing, register an index of unity that will grow into a huge effort or Grand Alliance to block Prime Minister Narendra Modi from collecting a second term in 2019.

At this evening's iftar gathering at Lalu's house, Congress president Ashok Choudhary was also present. Nitish Kumar, Lalu and the Congress jointly run Bihar. Lalu cannot afford right now to alienate Nitish Kumar, whose retirement he had sought just months ago, professing that it is time for younger leaders to helm Bihar. By which Lalu meant his own sons, who are ministers in the Bihar government. However, since then, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav have been ensnared in a series of corruption scandals. While Nitish Kumar may want to end his association with them, Lalu needs to remain in power to counter the weight of the investigations against his sons.

Sources say he also feels that in their differences over the President, Lalu has gained an advantage over Nitish Kumar. Meira Kumar is a Jatav Dalit and from the same sub-caste as Uttar Pradesh leader Mayawati, whose re-election to the Rajya Sabha next year will be backed heavily by Lalu. Through his support for these women politicians, Lalu hopes to consolidate his outreach to Jatav Dalits and expand his long-standing supporter base of Yadavs and Muslims. Propping up Meira Kumar has also given him a chance to take on the BJP publicly at a time when he was vulnerable on account of his family's corruption cases.

For his part, Nitish Kumar has no doubt evaluated that if he ditches the Congress and Lalu, an alliance that has never been kink-free, he can remain in office if the BJP steps in as his partner. Political stretch marks are appearing everywhere in Bihar.

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