There are however talks that Sushil Modi may be moved to the centre. There is Rajya Sabha seat vacated in Bihar after Ram Vilas Paswan’s demise.
On 11th of November, when the NDA declared its victory in the Bihar Assembly election, there was no doubt that Nitish Kumar is going to be the Chief Minister of the state for the consecutive fourth term and for the 7th time overall. That’s a huge feat in itself. In the days that followed, though there were reports that Nitish is unwilling to take the job, BJP the big brother in the alliance now kept reiterating what it said throughout the campaigning. Nitish Kumar will be the CM and there is no other name. What was also more or less believed was that Since Nitish Kumar is continuing as CM, Sushil Kumar Modi will continue as his deputy.
But the BJP is known to throw surprises in assembly elections, then be it Choosing Yogi Adityanath in UP, Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra or Manohar Lal Khattar for Haryana as CMs.
So while Nitish Kumar still stays the CM of Bihar, the BJP has changed quite a few things in the state Government formation that will have lasting impacts on Nitish Kumar’s new term in office. First of all, taking Sushil Kumar Modi out of the state politics and secondly appointing Tarkishor Prasad a four-time MLA from Katihar as the deputy and Renu Devi as BJP’s legislature party leader. As per the reports, the post of speaker has also gone to the BJP.
On Sunday, the NDA leaders met and the decision was taken. Hours later, Sushil Modi tweeted a cryptic message. He wrote, “The BJP and the Sangh Parivar gave me so much in the political life of 40 years that no other person would have got it. I will also discharge the responsibility that will be given. No one can take away the post of the worker.” This almost looked like a painful acceptance of the fact that he was taken out of the state politics by the central leadership. Of course, he then congratulated the two new Deputy CMs. There are however talks that Sushil Modi may be moved to the centre. There is Rajya Sabha seat vacated in Bihar after Ram Vilas Paswan’s demise. Sushil Modi may be sent to Rajya Sabha on the seat and could be made Union Minister.
But there is no denying that Sushil Kumar Modi mattered very much in State politics. More so for NDA government and even more for Nitish Kumar. The “Chief Minister In Waiting” was a loyal deputy to 68-year-old Nitish for more than 13 years of NDA rule in the state. So much so that a section of BJP leadership in the state saw it as an alarming sign. Despite hailing from BJP, he never tried to grow out of JDU’s shadow to the point that some leaders called him subservient of Nitish. That seems to have caused the leadership to pick him from state politics and put him in the centre. Today in this video we will talk about the many times when BJP’s other Modi had run-ins with his own party and sided with Nitish.
1. Calling Nitish PM Material In 2014
Even before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there was a demand inside BJP to make Narendra Modi the PM candidate. On the other hand, JDU started raising the name of Nitish Kumar as PM candidate of NDA from 2012 itself. Sushil Modi, however, supported the Nitish camp. On the other hand, the faces of Bihar BJP like Giriraj Singh and Ashwini Choubey were strongly opposed to Nitish’s mission. The BJP was angered by the behaviour of its leader Sushil Modi. In a 2012 interview, Sushil Modi had even called Nitish the PM material.
2. Bhagalpur violence
Even during the communal violence that erupted in Bhagalpur in March 2018, the BJP was deeply hurt by Sushil Kumar Modi’s activities. In this violence, the name of Ajit Shashwat- the son of Central minister Ashwini Chaube cropped up directly. He was arrested and the court sent him to 14 days judicial custody. There was anger in BJP from this action of Nitish Sarkar. The government was of the BJP-JDU alliance, but the decision to act on this was taken by the JDU alone. The entire BJP was against it, but Sushil Modi did not even look confused. It was natural that he again preferred Nitish Kumar against the BJP.
3. Communal Riots
In 2017, communal riots occurred in many places in Bihar. Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that that year Bihar was the first in the country in terms of riots. Statistics show that in 2017, there were a total of 58,729 riots across the country of which 11,698 incidents were recorded in Bihar alone. If we talk about communal riots, then in 2017, there were a total of 723 communal riots in the country of which 163 occurred in Bihar. Bihar topped the country in this matter.
Similarly, incidents of communal violence occurred in Bhagalpur, Aurangabad, Samastipur, Munger, Sheikhpura, Nalanda and Nawada in March-April 2018. The opposition was targeting Nitish Kumar, but Sushil Modi also stood there as a shield. On the allegations of RJD leader Tejashwir Yadav, Modi said that for the situation to become normal in the state, Tejashwi Yadav is not discharging his role properly.
4. The big charge on BJP leader Sushil Modi is that he has confirmed his deputy chief minister’s berth with Nitish Kumar, so he never wants to change the status quo in favour of BJP in the state. An example of how much Sushil is involved in this charge can be seen in a statement by the BJP leader Sanjay Paswan and Sushil Modi’s response to that. Sanjay Paswan said in 2019 that the BJP leader should become the Chief Minister of Bihar. Along with him, some other leaders demanded the BJP’s quota for the Chief Ministerial candidate from the NDA for the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections. Sushil Modi stood in favour of Nitish here. He tweeted, ‘Nitish Kumar is the captain of NDA in Bihar and will also be captain during the assembly elections in 2020. When Captain is beating the opponents with sixes and fours, where does the question of change arise? However, Modi later deleted this tweet. But inside the BJP, the thought deepened that even though Modi is BJP leader, he is only strengthening Nitish and JDU.
These were some of the reasons why BJP might have felt it was the right time to pull Sushil Modi out of Bihar. The Fact now is, With Sushil Modi gone, the shield that protected Nitish Kumar from its own hostile alliance leaders is gone. The next term will definitely be a tough task for Nitish Kumar.
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