Nitish Kumar The Fading Star? Kalyan Bigha Does Not Feel So | Ground Report

‘Mukhyamantri ji achet nahin hain, bilkul sachet hain’ (the chief minister is not unconscious but totally attentive and aware), says a villager in Kalyan Bigha when asked about Tejashwi Yadav’s recent

dig at chief minister Nitish Kumar, calling him “achet”.

But one can expect that to be heard in Kalyan Bigha, the ancestral village of Kumar. Here, he is the local boy who rose from modest roots to dislodge Lalu Prasad from power two decades ago. “When Rabri Devi was made chief minister, she could not differentiate between sauchalaya aur sachivalya. She was illiterate, still she was made the CM. Now, the same family has the temerity to sling mud at a chief minister who has transformed the state and finished jungle raj,” says a group of villagers here.

Move around villages in Nalanda and many describe Kumar as a “wise leader whose wisdom and sagacity is much-needed in Bihar”. Many elders say ridiculing someone for their age is not appreciated in Bihar. “Just because someone has grown old does not mean we should get rid of them,” says Om Ram as he reads a newspaper sitting on a road turn. Ram is 70 years old himself and says he has seen the state change before his eyes since 2005 with lawlessness becoming a thing of the past.

On a boat ride in the Ganga river, a group of RJD supporters say Kumar’s recent acts when in public show his mental acumen is different from earlier and that he should gracefully hang up his boots. “He is too dependent on bureaucrats now. The chief minister must control the bureaucracy… otherwise, he deserves another term to keep leading the state,” says a Kumar supporter. At Patna’s Marine Drive, a young man says the state should have Kumar as chief minister for life. “Patna has transformed because of him,” the man claims.

Women remain Kumar’s biggest votary. First prohibition, and now the Rs 10,000 aid to over 1.25 crore women in the country—women in Kalyan Bigha and nearby villages say Kumar has empowered them and kept them safe. For them, Kumar is like a guardian and a father figure who deserves another term as the chief minister. In Kalyan Bigha, voters feel Kumar is someone who needs a fitting farewell from power one day, not a defeat.