Change of guard

March 5 will go down in Bihar’s history as a day of unprecedented developments. The chief minister, Nitish Kumar, filed his nomination for the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections, effectively signalling the end of his more than two-decade tenure at the helm of the state. Then, within hours, Rashtrapati Bhavan announced the replacement of the Bihar governor, Arif Mohammed Khan, with Lieutenant-General (retired) Syed Ata Hasnain. It was perhaps the first time that the exit of a popular CM and the replacement of a sitting governor unfolded on the same day. The developments were seen as carefully choreographed by the ruling regime to assert political dominance. Kumar said that becoming a member of the upper House had long been his wish. It is, however, strange for a sitting CM to willingly step down to become a member of Parliament. Khan has so far maintained silence on his removal. In another notable move, the veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Speaker of the Bihar assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav, was appointed governor of Nagaland. Yadav had retired from active politics after he was denied a ticket in the last assembly elections. The gubernatorial posting thus appears to be a form of consolation. But his supporters are puzzled by his displacement from Bihar, where the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah leadership is expected to decide the next CM.

New ammunition

The Congress is setting the pace for the upcoming assembly elections in Assam despite facing criticism over delaying the declaration of its candidates or sealing pre-poll alliances. Within the span of a week, it has not only declared its first list of 42 candidates but also sealed alliances with three parties for a united fight to unseat the BJP-led government. In the process, it has taken a lead over the ruling BJP and its allies. More important, it has conveyed its seriousness about mounting a strong challenge by fielding the sitting Jorhat MP and Assam PCC president, Gaurav Gogoi, from the Jorhat assembly constituency —a seat that has remained largely with its rivals since the Nineties.

The state BJP has aligned with the All India United Democratic Front for the Rajya Sabha polls. This has given the Congress ammunition to expose the BJP’s doublespeak on the latter’s ‘AIUDF-Miya’ narrative. The Congress is now attacking the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for aligning with the ‘communal’ AIUDF to win all three Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. It is flagging how the BJP has always accused the AIUDF of espousing the cause of Bangladeshi immigrants — a sensitive issue in Assam — but now has no qualms about seeking its support.

Badly behaved

The ‘gentleman’ singer-actor- neta act is officially dead, in case any doubts lingered about the odious discourtesy and hubris that Babul Supriyo is capable of given his infamous history. This time, after filing his Rajya Sabha nomination, a journalist invoked Supriyo’s 2021 “playing XI” analogy — he had used it to justify his defection — asking him whether Banerjee was dropping him from her playing XI. In a display of unadulterated entitlement caught in high-definition by a videojournalist, Supriyo didn’t just lose the plot, he tried to burn the script. He loomed over the crew and snarled that the question was “meaningless” and “irrelevant”. He demanded the deletion of the footage.

The 55-year-old appeared on the verge of physical violence. His colleague, Nadimul Haque, and the state power minister, Aroop Biswas, had to physically drag him away. Sources say that at least one of the two in the Trinamool Congress’s supreme leadership is livid. However, given the choppy seas of SIR-hit, poll-bound Bengal, he may face no more than a rap on the knuckles for now.

Motivation man

The Union home minister, Amit Shah, has a knack for keeping party cadres motivated. The astute politician is aware that second-rung leaders in Odisha have reservations about the performance of the government and the selection of candidates for the Rajya Sabha from the state. Their discontent grew when Sujit Kumar, who had switched his allegiance from the Biju Janata Dal to the BJP in 2024, was given a Rajya Sabha ticket, sidelining long-time BJP workers who had contributed to the party’s growth in Odisha.

Despite his busy schedule, Shah found time to visit the party office before leaving for Delhi. In a closed-door meeting with the state BJP leaders, he offered valuable tips for both the government and the party. He asserted that the party could remain in power for the next 25 years if it succeeded in winning the confidence of the people. He assured that the BJP government will bring the Gujarat model of development to Odisha and promised to address concerns of local leaders, giving them renewed hope. He also targeted Naveen Patnaik’s government, criticising its record and said “nothing happened during his regime”.