“Bihar ki majboori hai, Nitish Kumar zaroori hai..”

(it is the compulsion of Bihar that Nitish Kumar is needed)

Ironically, I first heard that catchy slogan outside the BJP office in 2017, when Nitish Kumar decided to switch sides for the umpteenth time, dump the Yadavs’ first family, rejoin a Narendra Modi-led BJP, and stay on as Bihar Chief Minister. The return wasn’t driven by any sudden rediscovery of friendship but purely by political convenience. Eight years later, little has changed. The BJP has no special love for Nitish Babu — someone who was among the first to challenge Modi’s prime ministerial credentials in 2013 — but it has no option other than to stick with him as the NDA’s leadership face . A visibly ageing and unwell Nitish, too, now in the sunset of his long career,

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