Nitish's age, son's entry shadow politics in Bihar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar turned 75 on Monday. He is understandably aging, as the nature does with everyone, but he remains in command in the state, and politically indispensable too.

- Arun Kumar

PATNA:

But for the first time, the Opposition is making his age and health a political issue with direct and relentless attacks on him. Yet, beyond rhetoric, there is a method in it -- everyone knows the worth of Nitish Kumar to tilt the balance and the impact of his absence.

Despite his flip-flop in the last seven years from the Grand Alliance (GA) to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kumar has remained pivotal to the Bihar politics and has been able to play his cards deftly to be always one up.

JD-U leaders say there is a lot more left in Nitish Kumar, and so does the BJP, but the way there has been a concerted move to initiate his non-political son Nishant Kumar, 49, into politics and get prepared to take over the reins of the party points to a line of thinking in the party "to see their future beyond Nitish".

For the BJP, Bihar has remained the Achilles' heel, as despite being part of the government mostly since 2005, it has not been able to win in Bihar on its own to form the government, and was stumped at the peak of Narendra Modi's popularity in 2015 and its strategy failed to resurrect its fortune in 2020.