Townhall Times In a heated televised debate, BJP/RSS-affiliated commentator Harshvardhan Tripathi, who often presents himself as a journalist, made a bold and revealing statement about the future of Bihar’s leadership. Tripathi openly declared that Nitish Kumar will neither be the face of the Chief Ministerial campaign nor become the next Chief Minister of Bihar.
According to Tripathi, the BJP has already “planned something special” for Nitish Kumar. When the anchor asked him whether this “special plan” meant appointing Nitish Kumar as Governor or Vice President of India, Tripathi smiled and replied, “I won’t disclose the details, but take my word — Nitish Kumar is not going to be the Chief Minister of Bihar.”
In the course of the debate, Tripathi’s statement became even more direct and assertive. In a verbatim translation of his Hindi remarks, he said:
“As far as the Chief Minister’s issue is concerned, Nitish Kumar will not become the CM. But it will be Nitish Kumar himself who will announce the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate. Amit Shah and other top BJP leaders will be present with him. This process has already been decided.”
Tripathi continued,
“Anything can happen in politics — the people will ultimately decide. But it is very clear to me that the next Chief Minister of Bihar will be from the BJP. Tejashwi Yadav’s victory is impossible, and even if he manages to win, the setback will not be for Narendra Modi but for Rahul Gandhi’s brand of politics.”
When asked who might be the BJP’s choice for the top post, Tripathi refrained from naming anyone but hinted at internal party equations.
“It’s difficult to reveal the name right now,” he said. “But one thing is certain — leaders like Samrat Choudhary, Mangal Pandey, or Vijay Sinha will not be made Chief Minister. The person who is most active in this period of political uncertainty will emerge as the new CM.”
This statement from Tripathi carries enormous political weight because it comes at a time when Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said that the Bihar elections would be contested under Nitish Kumar’s leadership. Following Shah’s statement, BJP leaders avoided naming a Chief Ministerial face, while JDU members repeatedly urged the BJP to publicly declare Nitish Kumar as the alliance’s candidate.
Tripathi’s remarks have reignited the simmering tensions between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its uneasy ally, the Janata Dal (United). According to insiders within JDU, Tripathi’s comments confirm their long-standing suspicion that the BJP intends to sideline Nitish Kumar after the elections — possibly following the same pattern seen in Maharashtra, where Eknath Shinde was used to overthrow Uddhav Thackeray’s government.
Political observers say that this could mark the beginning of another “scripted operation,” designed to weaken JDU and bring Bihar fully under BJP’s control. The comment has also caused unease among Nitish Kumar’s supporters, who see this as a public admission of BJP’s internal plan to “retire” the Chief Minister and replace him with their own loyalist.
For Nitish Kumar, who has repeatedly shifted alliances between BJP and the opposition, this situation could turn into a major political test — perhaps the toughest of his career. If the BJP betrays him this time, he still holds the potential to destabilize the power structure in Delhi by aligning with opposition forces.
As Bihar heads toward crucial elections, Harshvardhan Tripathi’s televised statement has exposed the deep mistrust within the NDA alliance. It also reflects a growing trend within BJP of replacing long-time allies with their own handpicked leaders — a strategy that has reshaped state politics from Maharashtra to Madhya Pradesh, and now, perhaps, Bihar.
Whether Nitish Kumar allows himself to be “used and discarded” as Tripathi implied — or whether he rewrites the script once again — remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Bihar’s political drama has just entered its most unpredictable act.
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