DNA Edit: Diminishing returns - Nitish Kumar has changed his stripes once too often

Savvy Nitish Kumar may be heading to a point of no-return. Notwithstanding his chameleon-like qualities, there is only so much that anyone can manoeuvre and the Bihar chief minister seems to have reached a dead-end with his decision of taking on his principal ally, BJP.

Throughout his life, Nitish has changed parties and sides with a timing that is remarkable. He has been a long standing ally of the BJP, winning several Lok Sabha and Assembly elections with them; he has fought the BJP in alliance with his bete noire Lalu Yadav and emerged trumps.

In short, there is no one he has not sided with and nobody who he has not opposed. Even a trapeze artist would be proud of such calisthenics. Little wonder, in Bihar’s political circles, he is known as ‘paltu ram’, or someone who can do a U-turn at a drop of a hat, keeping friends and foes alike, in the dark.

Until now, Nitish has had a career, which would be the envy of many. He is adept at being chief minister of Bihar, for a sixth time since 2017, having played that role on five previous occasions. In addition, he has also served as Union minister, holding charge of such heavyweight portfolios as railways and agriculture. But now, time has run out for Nitish. In doing yet another U-turn, by refusing BJP’s offer for a single berth in the Union Cabinet, he has bitten more than he can chew.

Nitish has no place to go, alienating his friends and foes alike. If he distances himself from ally BJP, which he seems to have with his decision to expand the state cabinet offering a single berth to his NDA ally as a tit for tat offer that he has got for the Union cabinet, then he has burnt all his boats.

The bad blood with temporary ally Lalu Yadav, is way too serious to mend fences. The two backward leaders had joined hands for the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015, sinking years of bitter rivalry. At the height of the Narendra Modi wave, the two together bested the BJP in Bihar. But true to form, the U-turn came along sooner than expected.

In 2017, Nitish quit as Bihar chief minister after the CBI filed a corruption case against Lalu Yadav’s son, Tejashwi. His grouse: the father and son were not willing to explain the corruption charges against them, leaving him with him no choice but to quit, despite his most valiant efforts to save the ‘mahagathbandhan’. As it turned out, the move had well choreographed and Nitish had decided to go back to old ally, BJP.

Now that the 2019 Lok Sabha election had been won in style — with Lalu virtually vanquished without a single seat — there was the chance of running a coalition, providing much-needed stability. Sadly, that is not to be. Nitish Kumar may well turn out to be an example of what happens when a man changes his stripes once too often.