Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar can contest the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. This can be a big bet to cement his claim as the common candidate of the opposition for the post of Prime Minister. At the same time, this bet will also be good for Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav because the work that he could not do with Krishna Patel can be done with Nitish Kumar. Among the non-Yadav backward castes, the two castes with the largest vote base are Kurmi-Kori and Lodh. If Nitish goes to contest elections in Uttar Pradesh as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister, then the vote of Kurmi-Kori can break from the BJP. This will be a big loss for the BJP and a big advantage for the opposition.
It is being said that Nitish Kumar can contest from any of the two Kurmi-Kori dominated seats in Purvanchal – Mirzapur and Phulpur. If this happens, the contest will become very interesting as Prime Minister Narendra Modi also contests from the adjacent Varanasi seat. With Nitish going to UP to fight, there is also speculation that Prime Minister Modi can fight from Bihar. It was also discussed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that Prime Minister Modi can contest from Patna Sahib seat. But then he fought only from Varanasi seat. This time if Nitish challenges him by contesting from the seat next to him, then he can go to contest from Patna or Nalanda. Both of these are the center of Magadha, the first empire of the world. From there also the message can be given all over the country. In this way Nitish Kumar will also be surrounded in his own area.
