Exactly nine years ago Nitish Kumar, with the help ofalliance partner the BJP, became the chief minister of Bihar bringing to end nine months of President’s Rule, which followed 15 years of Lalu-Rabri era.

The oath-taking on Nov 24, 2005 evening at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan was followed by celebration by the NDA workers and supporters. Crackers were burst and champagne flowed on main thoroughfares of Patna.
However, not everyone was in celebration mode. Sadness was palpable in the RJD camp, with Lalu’s Ram (Kripal Yadav) and Shyam (Rajak), the true trusted lieutenants, sulking along with the supremo and rank and file of the party.But then there was another house where there was gloom all over after a brief moments of happiness.

Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was asked to put in his papers a couple of hours after being sworn in as a minister on the same evening, was upset. But he had no choice but to accept the order of all-powerful Nitish.

Perhaps no minister in the history of India has ever been sacked immediately after being inducted. Image-conscious Nitish then pleaded that he was not aware at the time of oath-taking that Manjhi’s name figures in education department scam.

He was inducted into the cabinet a few months later after his name was cleared of the scam.Nov 24, 2014 is a different day. Manjhi is now the chief minister of Bihar and Nitish is confronting a unique type of challenge from his hand-picked chief minister.

There was no celebration on this occasion, no newspaper advertisements, no criticism of RJD supremo, as it was a favourite pastime for him and his BJP friends. Now he has fallen on the lap of the same ‘Bade Bhai’ (elder brother). Instead a harried Nitish rushed back to Patna on the night of Nov 23 after Manjhi virtually challenged the party leadership.

to remove him. He met JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav for two hours over dinner and later on Nov 24 morning left for Sheikhpura after meeting several ministers of the Manjhi cabinet. Nine years down the memory lane Nitish is fighting the problem of his own making.

In his Sampark Yatra he is teaching his party workers the technique to combat “the communal and fascist forces” with whom he had shared power for about eight years in Bihar and with whom he snapped ties after 17 long years of relationship.

Till a few years back he and his deputy, Sushil Kumar Modi, used to hold Press conference on Nov 24 to highlight the achivements of the NDA government. Some truths, some half-truths, some manipulated data and some lies would be dished out in the name of report card.Journalists used to be fed and media barons would give all sorts of awards to Nitish in return for advertisements worth crores.

Nobody would dare to ask as to how can the construction of East-West Corridor, National Highways, roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, NRHM scheme for PHCs, coming up of IITs, Central Universities of Bihar, AMU’s Kishanganj branch etc be called as the achievemments of the state government
when the credit should have largely gone to the then Manmohan Singh government as they were all central government projects.

Now during the Sampark Yatra the same Nitish is blaming the Modi government for the poor condition of National Highways in Bihar.SuMo would not miss the occasion to see prime ministerial material in Nitish even though his own party leaders had then been rooting for Narendra Modi. He changed his colour––again to saffron indeed––only after June 16, 2013 when Nitish kicked him and 10 of BJP ministers out.

On Nov 24, 2010 came the results of the Assembly election in which the JD(U)-BJP combine did very well only to start the second innings two days later on Nov 26. Let us see what happens on Nov 24, 2015 for Nitish, Manjhi and SuMo.