What promised to be high-voltage drama ended with a whimper as the main protagonist fled the battlefield even before the first shot was fired. Bihar Assembly was all set for a no-holds barred slugfest between friends-turned-rivals Jitan Ram Manjhi and Nitish Kumar with both sides claiming majority in the House but the script changed so dramatically at the last moment that it took everyone by surprise.
In a huge anti-climax to the long-drawn political drama, Jitan Ram Manjhi drove to Raj Bhawan to meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and tendered his resignation about 90 minutes before the Bihar Assembly was scheduled to meet, throwing all speculations about who has the numbers into the dustbin.
Manjhi's unexpected decision to throw in the towel without putting up a fight despite the Bharatiya Janata Party supporting him came as a shot in the arm for Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal United. Nitish has been claiming the support of 130 MLAs out of which 99 are from his party, 24 of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), five Congress legislators, one belonging to Communist Party of India and an Independent.
When the Nitish vs Manjhi drama started to unfold, it was the BJP which expected to make a killing by not only cornering the former and questioning his claims of doing a lot to uplift the Mahadalit community but by also showing itself as a party which supported the downtrodden segments of the society by backing the latter. What the BJP had not bargained for was the sudden and surprising move of Manjhi walking away from the boxing ring after the bell had been sounded.
After the fast-paced developments in Patna, both Manjhi and BJP are left with very few options. JDU's doors are closed for Manjhi and he cannot expect much sympathy from the BJP too as the party doesn't gain much by bringing in a leader who not only suffers from a foot-in-mouth disease but also has a very poor track record as an administrator.
Manjhi supporters claim he has emerged as the biggest leader of the Mahadalit community which is 23% of the electorate. But the BJP which is already in alliance with Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan, himself a self-confessed Dalit leader, is unlikely to give Manjhi much importance especially as the party declared its cards too soon and failed to gain much in the final bargain.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had on Thursday said his party would vote for Manjhi during the floor test, but the party did not actually get a chance to do so giving its opponents more ammunition. Soon after Manjhi's resignation Nitish Kumar targeted the BJP accusing it of trying to engineer a split in the JDU and propping up Manjhi.
Manjhi may be tempted to form a new party but MLAs supporting him are unlikely to stick with him and will either drift towards the BJP or go back to the JDU. Manjhi is also not known for his political acumen and even though he tried to cultivate his community in a bid to emerge out of Nitish Kumar's shadow, the poor administrative record, claims of accepting commission and paying bribes along with a long list of bizarre statements are a big blot on his chief ministership.
The BJP leadership was taken aback by Manjhi's resignation and blamed Nitish Kumar of using and then throwing out a Mahadalit chief minister. Blaming him for political instability in the state, BJP claimed that Nitish would pay dearly for his shenanigans in the next election.
Taking a cue for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar quickly apologised for quitting as Bihar chief minister after the Lok Sabha election rout and promised that he would not take such an emotional decision in the future. How the Bihar voters react to Nitish Kumar's sorry act will be revealed only a few months later when the state goes to election, it is clear that he has managed to kill two birds with one stone.
With numbers on his side Nitish Kumar staked claim to form the next government and will take oath as Bihar CM for the fourth time on Sunday 5 PM.
Apart from Nitish, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Lalu Prasad, too, has reasons to cheer as with a friendly government in Patna, he gets one more chance to rebuild his party and remain a force to reckon with in Bihar politics.
But with Lalu by his side, Nitish will have to work very hard to fight off the accusation that Bihar will not slide into "jungle raj-2" if the JDU-RJD combine wins Assembly elections. He has about six months to win back Bihar's trust and show he is still the "sushashan babu".
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