Lalu proposes, Nitish disposes: Amid a familiar dance of friends-turned-rivals, a look at their decades-long relationship | Political Pulse News

The Bihar CM’s comments clearing the air on his political stance came days after RJD chief Lalu Prasad attempted to warm up to him by saying, “If Nitish Kumar decides to join us, he is always welcome. We will work together.”

In a 2015 interview to this correspondent, Nitish Kumar recounted how he supported Prasad’s claim to the Leader of the Opposition post in 1989, choosing him instead of the more famous and seasoned Yadav troika of Anoop Prasad Yadav, Vinayak Prasad Yadav, and Gajendra Himanshu because he “wanted to take power to a leader of his generation”.

Nitish, a studious leader with a flair for writing well-crafted Hindi, often wrote press notes for Prasad who had become the LoP. A year later, when Lalu Prasad became the CM, Nitish became his principal advisor though he was elected MP in 1989 after defeating Congress heavyweight Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav. It was quite ironic that Nitish’s success came at the cost of someone who was once Lalu’s idol.

The next chapter in their relationship came soon afterwards. With the Janata Dal having won 48 of 54 seats in undivided Bihar in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, senior party leaders such as George Fernandes, Sharad Yadav, and Ram Vilas Paswan started feeling cornered. But it was Nitish who first raised the banner of revolt by the end of 1993 and eventually formed the Samata Party under George Fernandes’s leadership in 1994.

Nitish Kumar charted his own course by contesting the 1995 Assembly elections alone and won only seven seats. Lalu Prasad again returned to power. When some journalists went to meet him on the day of the results, a surprised Nitish asked why journalists should come to him when Lalu was the king of state politics.

BJP enters the picture

Since then, Nitish has traversed one long course. He joined the NDA in 1995, winning the confidence of top BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, who chose to make him the Bihar CM in 2000 instead of their party colleague Sushil Kumar Modi. Though he remained the CM for a week, Nitish managed to make his political stature bigger than any BJP Bihar leader, including possible challenger Modi.

All through his political heyday, Lalu Prasad remained Nitish’s chief political rival. It was the late BJP leader Arun Jaitley who pushed for Nitish as the NDA’s CM face in the October 2005 polls. It worked and Nitish returned to the helm of the state. In 2010, he overran the Opposition as the RJD was reduced to just 23 MLAs in a House of 243. This was the second big blow for the RJD within months. In the Lok Sabha polls the year before, the RJD had fallen from 22 seats to four, while the NDA won 32 of the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies.

A twist in the tale

Just when everyone thought it was the end of the Lalu-Nitish story, in 2013, the Janata Dal (United) leader parted ways with the NDA because of his national ambitions. The JD(U) contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls alone and it backfired as the party was reduced from 20 to two seats.

Nitish hit a new political low and became desperate to reboot his politics. Often called the “biggest political calculator of Bihar”, he worked out that joining hands with his once principal rival would once again put him on the path of ascendancy in Bihar politics. In the 2015 interview, Nitish said he “decided to join Lalu Prasad because of his mass base and lack of choice before him”.

The two socialist leaders — referred to as “Bada Bhai” and “Chhota Bhai”, big brother and younger brother — came together before the 2015 Assembly polls. When they were to share the dais after 21 years at a function in Vaishali, there was a great buzz in the media. As they embraced each other with smiles playing on their faces, another phase began in state politics: the revival of Lalu but with Nitish keeping his primacy. The RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance won 178 seats. Even though the RJD emerged as the single-largest party with 81 seats, 10 more than the JD(U), Lalu conceded the CM post to Nitish.

That is when the flip-flop story began. By the end of 2016, Nitish started feeling uncomfortable in the company of Lalu, who was said to be taking major policy decisions from behind the scenes, and his sons Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the Deputy CM, and Tej Pratap Yadav, the health minister.

Nitish had been looking for an alibi to quit the Mahagathbandhan. The CBI’s raids at Lalu’s home and the subsequent IRCTC case filed against him and his family, including Tejashwi, in mid-2017 provided him just that. Nitish went to Rajgir and remained incommunicado for a few days. At the time, Lalu told the media: “Just when Nitish keeps quiet, it means he is up to something big.” The JD(U) leader returned to Patna a few days later and dialled Lalu to inform him that he was quitting the alliance. At the time, Lalu is learned to have replied: “Thik hai, toh aap ja rahe hain? (Okay, so are you leaving?)”

With Nitish gone, Tejashwi wanted to forge his own path and rise in stature. In the 2020 Assembly polls, his “10 lakh jobs” pitch almost brought him to power as the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan won 110 seats, only 12 short of a majority. The JD(U) was relegated to third position (43 seats) behind the RJD (75 seats) and the BJP (74 seats). But Nitish again became the CM, with his numbers guaranteeing him the crucial role of deciding who would come to power.

Though Tejashwi was averse to Nitish’s return in 2022, it was Lalu who again had his way and welcomed back Nitish. In private, the RJD chief reasoned that the two of them together could be at the helm of Bihar for several years. However, Nitish not being made the convenor of the INDIA bloc and the lack of support from Lalu again led to the Bihar CM switching sides in January 2024.

How Nitish swings may decide the course of Bihar politics in a crucial election year and Lalu knows this well. And this political calculation is likely behind his overture to his friend-turned-rival.

Through all the ups and downs over the decades, an endearing feature of the Lalu-Nitish story has been that neither has personally attacked the other. Lalu Prasad, in fact, once stopped senior leader Prabhunath Singh from using foul language against the Bihar CM. In private conversations, the RJD chief has often been heard saying that “Nitish was like a family member”.