There is suspense on the face of NDA CM in Bihar elections 2025, while the opposition has declared Tejashwi as its candidate. BJP is avoiding formal announcement of Nitish’s name to strike a balance between the morale of its workers and JDU’s core voters.
As the Bihar Assembly elections are approaching, the ambiguity regarding the Chief Ministerial candidate within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is increasing. On one hand, the opposition alliance INDIA has declared Tejashwi Yadav as its CM face, while on the other hand, BJP is hesitant in making any clear formal announcement on this question. This dilemma has now become the biggest political suspense of the elections, on which the opposition is continuously exerting political pressure.
Political suspense: Why the delay in formal announcement?
Although top BJP leaders have said that the election is being fought under the leadership of current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, but he has not been formally declared the NDA’s Chief Ministerial candidate. Tejashwi Yadav is continuously taking advantage of this ambiguity, who is challenging NDA from every platform to make his Chief Minister candidate public.
Political analysts believe that this hesitation of BJP is not a coincidence, but a well-thought-out strategy, behind which are hidden the internal compulsions and political calculations of the party.
BJP’s internal compulsion and fear of core voters
A large section of BJP leaders believe that there is a strong political compulsion behind not declaring Nitish Kumar as the CM candidate. For the last few years, party workers and leaders have been feeling that they are not getting a fair share of power in the state as per their political strength.
Worker morale: Party leaders believe that if Nitish Kumar’s name is announced as the chief ministerial candidate before the elections, the morale of BJP workers may break. The workers have been longing to see a ‘BJP Chief Minister’ for a long time and the party cannot completely ignore their sentiment.
Fear of internal report: According to sources, internal reports of BJP had also revealed that if Nitish Kumar’s name is declared as CM candidate, it could have a negative impact on the party’s core voters. There is a risk of these voters becoming indifferent towards the party.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, when asked in this regard, had also clearly said that after the elections, the MLAs will together decide their leader, due to which the suspense over the CM candidate has deepened further.
Risk and Tejashwi’s bet on JDU voters
However, this strategy also carries a huge political risk. This risk is related to the core voters of JDU. It is a political reality in Bihar that there is a clear group of voters who, despite being in power for 20 years, only want to see Nitish Kumar on the Chief Minister’s chair. In such a situation, if there is no formal clarity on this front, then the enthusiasm of JDU’s core voters may be negatively affected and they may become indifferent towards voting. This is the reason why JDU leaders are vocally claiming in public meetings that Nitish Kumar will remain the Chief Minister, but due to lack of formal announcement, the impact of these claims seems to be reducing.
Opposition alliance INDIA is seeing this ambiguity as a big political opportunity for itself. Tejashwi Yadav and his allied leaders are trying to deepen the vote transfer rift between BJP-JDU by making it an election issue. If this strategy is successful and vote transfer is affected, then the opposition alliance is sure to get a big benefit from it.