Handshake between PM and Nitish kumar ; feel something new in Indian politics?

After the massive victory of BJP in Gujarat and UP there were so many changes happening in the Indian politics, Vijay Rupani took oath as the chief minister of Gujarat on Tuesday for the second time. The event was a BJP show of power as almost all of its chief ministers, senior Union ministers, top leaders of the party, including LK Advani, PM Narendra Modi, and BJP chief Amit Shah was in attendance. However, one pic that was unmissable was Modi meeting Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Both leaders smiled at each other, shook hands, signaling they have left their acrimonious past far behind.

After breaking the Bihar Grand Alliance of JD(U)-Congress-RJD and joining hands again with the BJP in July this year, this is for the first time when the Bihar chief minister has participated in the swearing-in of a BJP chief minister. Nitish reached Ahmedabad along with his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP after many years.

In past, while running the Bihar government along with BJP, Nitish had avoided attending swearing-in ceremonies of Narendra Modi as chief minister of Gujarat. Not only this, fearing alienation of Muslim votes in Bihar, Nitish had also not allowed Modi to campaign in his state during 2007 and 2010 assembly elections.

The political situation has changed now. Nitish is now firmly with the BJP and apparently happy. Prior to the Gujarat polls, Nitish had successfully predicted that people of Gujarat will not ditch PM Narendra Modi, whom they had sent to the Centre in 2014. After the BJP won the poll, though, with a truncated margin, Nitish was one of the first leaders who congratulated Rupani.

Nitish’s act of joining hands with the BJP early this year was derided by many political pundits. Some even endorsed RJD jibe of ‘Paltu Ram’ on the Bihar CM. But being a shrewd politician, with an image and following of his own, probably Nitish knows better than the pundits as to how to run his politics.

The recent conviction of Nitish’s rival Lalu Prasad Yadav in a fodder scam case has raised fears of caste consolidation in favor of the RJD in the state. To counter that, Nitish can’t depend only on his own caste micro-management skill but also the vote bank of the BJP in the state. For the saffron party, Nitish is one face it can use in 2019 to counter charges of being a communal party.