25: Fateful Year for Bihar & Nitish

For Bihar, the year 2025 comes with new challenges and opportunities.

- Arun Kumar

PATNA: The first political test would come in the form of the state elections and all the permutations and combinations that are formed in an election's wake.

The stage for that fateful polls is already being set.

For a state like Bihar, it will not just be an election, but a trendsetter for the future in more ways than one. The contest is set to once again revolve around National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the INDIA bloc, though Jan Suraaj Party of poll strategist Prashant Kishor and other players like AIMIM of Assauddin Owaisi can also impact the ultimate outcome.

The ruling NDA seems united at present, but the real test will begin once the talks for seat sharing begins post 'Khadmas' (considered inauspicious period in Hindu calendar when important decisions are put on hold), which is after Tila Sankranti (when the Sun enters the zodiac sign of Capricorn) on January 14.

It is the Tila Sankranti feast organised by various political parties and leaders that gives a glimpse of the emerging equations.

The problem of plenty due to soaring ambitions of smaller NDA constituents will be too hot to handle, as it was last time in 2020 when the LJP decided to fight alone, and the aspirations of ticket seekers in each party has the potential of triggering a phase of political hopping.

NDA has publicly declared that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be its face for polls, but speculations around his health, the growing age factor and history of flip-flop is something the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been trying to play up to create fissures in the ruling alliance in a bid to fan confusion about leadership in the minds of the people.