A big political development is going to happen in Bihar. Although the time has not been decided yet but the process has started. The two major parties of Bihar’s ruling alliance i.e. Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal-U will merge. The two parties will become one. Efforts are being made to revive the Janata Dal of the nineties. It is worth noting that both the parties have separated from the Janata Dal formed after the movement of VP Singh. After breaking away from Janata Dal, Lalu Prasad formed RJD and Nitish Kumar formed Samata Party, which later became JDU.
JDU leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has indicated that both the parties can come together. He has indicated this on the pretext of by-elections for two seats in Bihar. Rashtriya Janata Dal is contesting in both these seats and Nitish Kumar has not even gone in campaigning for RJD candidates, but he has made it clear that further politics will be in Tejashwi’s hands by talking about taking forward Tejashwi Yadav. When asked about not going to campaign for the by-elections, Nitish Kumar said that Tejashwi is campaigning and now he has to move forward.
When Nitish talked about the progress of Tejashwi, he did not mean only about the progress of RJD under the leadership of Tejashwi. What they mean is deep. Now Tejashwi will go ahead with the legacy of both the parties. They will carry forward the shared legacy of both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar. They would become representatives of both socialist politics and the Mandal movement. This will happen only when RJD and JDU merge. As far as its timing is concerned, it has two deadlines. This work can be done before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections or during the 2025 assembly elections.
The condition of the merger of both the parties before the next Lok Sabha is that Nitish Kumar should become the candidate of the common opposition. That is, if the opposition parties are ready to contest the election on his face, which Nitish himself has also started his efforts. Both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar will try this together. If the non-Congress opposition parties agree to form a front under his command, then this work will be done before the 2024 elections. Then Nitish will be the national president of the newly formed party in Bihar and Tejashwi Yadav will become the Chief Minister of Bihar. If it doesn’t, Tejashwi will have to wait. Then before the 2025 assembly elections, both the parties will merge and the party will contest the elections by making Tejashwi a contender for the post of Chief Minister. Before that Nitish Kumar will have to keep in mind that the possibility of merger does not break his party. In the event of a merger, many JDU leaders may turn to the BJP.
