Is Nitish Kumar trying to redeem himself? 

New Delhi: On July 26, 2017, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar dumped 'mahagathbandhan' and went back to his old ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with whom he had parted ways in 2013 following Narendra Modi's anointment as the NDA's prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 

Kumar had then vowed that he will never ever have any truck again with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad. 

Apart from his Janata Dal (United) and the RJD, the grand alliance then also comprised Congress.

On that day, Kumar had refused to take the calls of the then Congress general secretary in charge of Bihar and now Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi. Kumar had then maintained that he had informed Lalu Prasad and Joshi that he was going to resign as the chief minister. 

But Joshi countered Kumar, insisting that the JD(U) leader in his meeting with Rahul Gandhi two days before he resigned had not spelt out his intentions in case RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was not asked to step down as the deputy chief minister in the backdrop of allegations of corruption against him. 

Kumar had informed Joshi only when he was entering the Raj Bhavan in Patna to submit his resignation. Joshi had then requested Kumar to wait till he gets back to him after speaking with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. But he didn't wait. 

Cut to August 2022, Kumar dumped the BJP to revive his ties with the RJD. 

He was convinced that the BJP was trying to split his party as it had done with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and finish him off politically. 

He had reasons for that. He believed that the BJP was trying to use his one-time closest aide RCP Singh to do an Eknath Shinde (once a close confidante of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and now Maharashtra chief minister who mercilessly dislodged his boss) in Bihar. 

Kumar was one step ahead and prevented a coup in his party, unlike Uddhav Thackeray who remained clueless till the end. 

Post his latest switch, Kumar is on a redemption mission. 

He is also trying hard to correct the image of being Bihar's 'Paltu Ram' given that his credibility has taken a huge hit due to his frequent political turnarounds. 

Apart from opening a front against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar is meeting opposition leaders to assure them that he is not going to jump ship again. 

He met Rahul Gandhi, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja and his former party colleague Sharad Yadav. 

He is also going to meet Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) boss Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Indian National Lok Dal patriarch Om Prakash Chautala, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and others in the coming days. 

Prior to his Delhi visit, Kumar had met Lalu Prasad and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) who had specially flown to Patna to meet him post his divorce from the BJP.  

A wounded tiger now, Kumar is pushing for a broader opposition unity for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, insisting that if all parties fight together, the BJP will come down to 50 seats in 2024. 

He is keen on having a comprehensive common minimum programme so that even the warring opposition parties keep their differences aside and come under one platform to oust the BJP. 

He fully knows it is a tough task given that many opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have strong reservations to be a part of any grouping led by the Congress. Pawar had once tried to bring all of them together but failed.

For now, Kumar has maintained that he is not the prime ministerial candidate and that he has no desire or aspiration to hold the post. 

But that is Nitish Kumar for whom Lalu Prasad had once stated that he has 'teeth in his stomach' (inke pet mei daant hain), which loosely translates to being a 'complicated person'.

After his party was relegated to the third position in the 2020 Bihar elections with RJD being the number one followed by the BJP, Kumar is well aware of the fact that it would be very difficult for him to hold on to the chief minister's post in Bihar for a longer period and hence going for a national role could be a safe exit route for him.

The RJD also wants to see Kumar out of Bihar as soon as possible to enable Tejashwi to take over the reins of the government from him. 

But Kumar is known for keeping his cards close to his chest. All eyes are on him to see whether he agrees to go as per the new script or does another somersault to stay politically relevant.