By Vijay SimhaWe looked at Rahul Gandhi yesterday as one of the three people in India with a realistic shot at the top job in 2014, unless something dramatic occurs.
Today,we shall try to get a sense of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Nitish Kumar, born 1951
Bihar chief minister
Most likely to: Make the rest of us feel better about Bihar.
Least likely to: Overstate his case for New Delhi.
To most people, Nitish Kumar is the Man from Bihar. Someone they have heard of; not someone they know. This may need correction.
For, Nitish is master of the whole.
He has been in prison fighting the State [during Emergency]. He has been the State [governments in Bihar and New Delhi].
He has founded political parties [Samata Party, Janata Dal – United]. He has quit them [Samata].
He has supped with the rightwing. He has retained secular charm.
He puts soul into work. He walks away.
He has won elections. He has lost. This gives him a perspective different from Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, who have not lost individual elections.
He has known titans as friend and foe [Lalu Prasad].
By all this, he knows all that politics has to offer.
He paces himself superbly. He has an immaculate sense of timing.
Image: India's Bihar state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (C) waves following his return from Pakistan at the India-Pakistan border in Wagah on November 16, 2012.
Text: Sify
Images: AFP
