A 20-YR TRIP: FROM 7-DAY FAILURE TO LONG-TERM RULE

It was the month of March in the year 2000.

- SHASHI SHEKHAR

Nitish Kumar was facing the Assembly leading a 7-day-old government. He needed a minimum of 12 legislators to prove his majority on the floor of the house. Had it been today, with 20 independents and 23 Congressmen it would have been a cakewalk but those were different times.At that time in the legislative assembly Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal with 124 members was the largest force present in the hall. Nitish’s Samata Party on the other hand had only 34 seats. He had the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others with a total tally of 151. This support was the key that drove the governor to ask him to stake claim to the chief minister's post. Since Nitish became the chief minister rumours were rife that Lalu’s close associate Shahabuddin had ringfenced 23 Congress MLAs. Despite being the chief minister Nitish was helpless. In a decade of his rule Lalu had uniquely modified the Bihar administration.

It was impossible to root out the ‘system’ in just seven days.

The inevitable happened and with an emotional speech Nitish Kumar bowed out of his first term in power. “Bihar's public is witnessing how democracy is being held hostage. Do we want to offer such politics to Bihar where even the public representatives aren't free to move about?” were his desperate words.