Is Nitish Kumar’s mental health an election issue for Biharis?

At first glance, the cream-coloured building in the village of Kalyan Bigha appeared too modest to be the ancestral home of Nitish Kumar, Bihar's longest-serving chief minister. Tall trees lined one side of the road on which the two-storeyed house is located. The greenish water in the pond facing its entrance was completely still. Some freshly painted benches next to the pond bore banal messages on the importance of cleanliness.

Local officials keep Kalyan Bigha spruced up, villagers said, in anticipation of visitors such as this reporter, who come whenever the state is headed for polls. Though Kumar himself stopped contesting elections from this constituency decades ago, his popularity remains intact in his native village. Sitting under an old tree near the Janata Dal (United) supremo's house, Ashok Shaw, 65, brushed aside questions about his mental health.

“He will rule so long as he lives,” declared Shaw, lifting his wrinkly arm and flexing his muscles as if to indicate that at the age of 74, Nitish Kumar was perfectly fit for another term in office.

In recent weeks, Kumar's opponents have flagged his purportedly deteriorating mental health. During a virtual event on October 4, for example, cameras caught Kumar repeatedly folding his hands and smiling as though he was greeting someone. It was unclear who he was looking at.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial candidate, posted a video clip of the incident on social media. “Does the chief minister appear mentally healthy to you while engaging in such bizarre antics?” he asked on X.

Other Opposition leaders such as Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party have also alleged that Kumar is merely the “face” of the Bihar government while the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ally of the Janata Dal (United), runs the state by remote control.

The issue animates the media. News outlets and YouTubers liken Nitish Kumar to Joe Biden, the former United States president who dropped out of the 2024 American elections in the face of widespread questions about his mental health. Reputed publications, such as The Telegraph, have reported that Kumar may be suffering from dementia.

However, Scroll found that the Opposition campaign has not really resonated with the state's voters. Most Biharis do not think that the mental health of the chief minister is a major factor in these elections. Even those who believe that all is not well with Kumar said that this alone was not enough for them to vote against him.

In Kalyan Bigha, Kumar's supporters dismissed the Opposition campaign. Naveen Kumar, a farmer, recollected that the chief minister looked alright to him when he last visited the village back in May.

Rammaresh Singh, a 59-year-old retiree, nodded in agreement. He argued that the seat-sharing arrangement in the National Democratic Alliance showed Kumar was in complete control. “Every ticket was handed out in keeping with his wishes,” he claimed.

On further prodding, Singh did admit that Kumar's age was beginning to show. But, he countered, the Opposition as well as the media were blowing the problem out of proportion.

“His condition is not that bad,” he said about Kumar's mental acuity, pointing out that the chief minister was still able to recognise residents of his village. “Anyway, people with bad memory live longer than those who are very sharp.”

Notwithstanding such unscientific notions, the underlying reason why some voters refuse to look beyond Kumar is political. For people like Singh who lived through the period between 1990 and 2005, when the Rashtriya Janata Dal ruled Bihar, Kumar is the default option.

“I would prefer Nitish Kumar over Lalu Yadav's family even if he was bedridden or in coma,” he confessed.

In North Bihar, which is a stronghold of the BJP-Janata Dal (United), the view that Kumar is fit for another term is shared by people of different classes. Before heading to work one morning, daily-wage labourer Raja Patel, 33, stopped to talk about the Janata Dal (United) leader.

“He can cut down on travel,” Patel reasoned as he drank his sattu, a roasted gram drink that is a staple for working-class Biharis. “He need not be physically present everywhere. This is the age of technology. He can use drone cameras to monitor the progress of government work.”

Neelam Kumari, a political science professor at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in North Bihar's Muzaffarpur city, also downplayed the concerns about Kumar's health. “Anybody can be unwell sometimes,” the professor said. “It is not as if he is mentally unfit for office. His policies are all in place.”

Kumar's allegedly declining mental health might even get him sympathy from his supporters, especially those living in rural areas, according to Arrah-based independent journalist Ashutosh Kumar Pandey.

“Several people tell me that they see Nitish Kumar as an elder member of their family,” he added. “You don't abandon a relative when they fall sick or get old.”

On the ground, Scroll met two sets of people displeased with Kumar's endurance: BJP supporters, who feel stuck with him because of coalition politics, and Opposition voters yearning for a change of leadership in Bihar.

Construction worker Sanjay Mahto, a resident of Goraul village in Vaishali, belongs to the first category. “Nitish is a paltu who keeps changing his mind,” he said, using the Hindi word that Kumar's critics use to describe his string of flip-flops since 2013. “I will vote for JD(U) because of Modi, not Nitish. But if he switches sides again, I will feel very bad.”

On the other end of Bihar's political spectrum, it is the Yadavs, seen as core voters of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, who mock Kumar for his antics.

“Did you watch this?” asked Vishal Kumar, owner of a pan shop in Sitamarhi's Chakmahila neighbourhood, playing a viral clip from a recent Nitish Kumar rally on his smartphone. It showed the chief minister insisting on garlanding a woman candidate despite a Janata Dal (United) leader's attempts to stop him from doing so.

“Something is really wrong with the man,” the pan shop owner added. Such ridiculing of Nitish Kumar is underpinned by a growing sense of frustration with his persistence, particularly among Opposition voters.

Both Nitish Kumar's admirers and detractors agree that his work in the areas of road construction, electrification and women's safety is visible across the state. Increasingly, though, many believe that Kumar has lost control of the government.

In Sirsi village of Harnaut, which once used to be Kumar's own assembly constituency, voters alleged that the local leadership and bureaucrats were corrupt. The Nitish Kumar of yesteryears, they believe, would have promptly acted on their complaints.

“He is not the same man that he used to be 10 years ago,” lamented Ramji Prasad, a farmer.

Grievances like this make Kumar's well-wishers worry about the future of his party. Some of them say he should slowly hand over the reins to the 50-year-old Nishant, his only child. While Kumar has opposed dynastic politics, that has not deterred Janata Dal (United) supporters from rallying behind the idea.

“It's not like he has a very big family with tens of people looking to contest elections,” quipped Shaw, the Kalyan Bigha resident quoted earlier in this story. “Every tree should have at least one green and healthy branch.”

The Janata Dal (United) has yet to formally announce Nishant Kumar's entry in politics. However, the prospect of him eventually taking over the party is a major talking point as Bihar gears up to vote. The possibility of a BJP takeover of Janata Dal (United) after the election is another possibility that is keenly discussed in the state.

Those who have known Nitish Kumar for a long time are angered by such chatter. A Janata Dal (United) politician, who requested anonymity to speak freely about their leader, bemoaned the situation in which Kumar found himself. But he blamed the chief minister's decision to continue ruling the state in alliance with the BJP for his predicament.

“If he really was healthy, he would have voluntarily given up that chair by now,” he said.

Read Scroll's ground reports from Bihar here.

Source: Scroll
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