New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar's quick admission of his mistake in resigning as Bihar chief minister and apology to the people is a clear reminder that he has learnt a lesson from Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Speaking to mediapersons in Patna on Friday after meeting Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Kumar said, "I accept my mistake for stepping down as CM. I seek apology from the people of Bihar for this mistake."
Kejriwal too had repeatedly admitted his mistake in resigning as Delhi chief minister and apologised to the people of Delhi. The voters of the national capital seem to have not only forgiven Kejriwal but also brought AAP back to power with an unprecedented majority of 67 of the 70 seats.
Kejriwal had resigned in a huff on February 14, 2014 after AAP failed to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed. It did not get the support of the Congress with whose outside support it was running the government.
There are several similarities between Kejriwal and Kumar as far as resigning from their chief minister's post and then accepting their mistake and apologising to the people is concerned.
The resignation of both Kejriwal and Kumar is related to their prime ministerial ambitions. In his speech on February 14 after he was sworn in as Delhi Chief Minister for the second time, Kejriwal admitted that they had become arrogant enough to contest the Lok Sabha elections. "We paid for our arrogance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and god punished us," he said.
Kumar is also known to have harboured prime ministerial ambitions. Exactly a week after Narendra Modi was declared as Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Campaign Committee chairperson on June 16, 2013, JDU broke its alliance with it. The BJP leaders took digs at Kumar saying he had assumed that the third front parties would project him as the leader for the Lok Sabha elections which never happened.
Both Kejriwal and Kumar seem to have realised their mistakes the hard way. The former had to witness protests in the form of facing black flags, hoots, eggs, tomatoes and footwears from the public throughout the country. A Delhi auto-rickshaw driver even slapped him hard once.
As far as Kumar is concerned, he installed his follower Jitan Kumar Manjhi. However, instead of being a "remote-controlled" chief minister, Manjhi defied him and JDU and embarrassed them on several occasions. Matters reached such a pass that Manjhi was expelled from the party despite being a CM and both challenged each other.
Apparently taking a leaf out from Kejriwal's experience, Kumar hopes that the voters will forget and forgive him if he aired in public his realisation of mistake and apologised to the people.
Kumar may have followed Kejriwal, but it is not certain whether the voters of Bihar will also follow their counterparts in Delhi as caste, religion and class play a crucial role in the eastern state.
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