A strategy that backfired: Puppet

Chief Minister
Following the humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha elections 2014, with Janta Dal (United)
winning only 2 out of the 40 Lok Sabha Seats of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, the leader of JD (U)
resigned from the post of Chief Minister, taking full responsibility for the loss. In his place, he
with the partys consent nominated Jitan Ram Manjhi as the chief minister candidate. Back
then he must have thought that he would still be ruling Bihar indirectly using Manjhi as a
puppet. Manjhi also offered the added advantage of being from a scheduled caste,
therefore bringing the prospects of increased vote bank for JD(U). Nitish Kumar had the
reasons to believe that this strategy would work. After all, the political history is a testament
to the politicians using pawns as puppets to indirectly rule over the people, when they were
not in a position to do so directly.
Manmohan Singh was Indias Prime Minister for 10 years, but even the people living under
a cave by now know that he had little autonomy over the Prime Ministers office, as he was
not even allowed to appoint his own finance minister. Manmohan Singh remained a stooge
for most of his second term, a Prime Minister who remained silent while his ministers kept
pulling off scams after scams.
Rabri Devi was Chief Minister of Bihar for three terms, but she may as well as not be able
to tell you what is the capital of Bihar, and couldnt answer a single question related to the
administration of Bihar as Lalu Prasad Yadav remained the true Chief Minister. Jayalalitha,
after being jailed for disproportionate assets case in 2014, had to resign from the post of
Chief Minister. The new chief minister, O. Panneerselvam took the position, but just like
Bharat, who put Ramas paduka on the throne, and ruled as a subordinate, he too
announced his allegiance to Amma. The real Chief Minister of TamilNadu remains
Jayalalitha, and this was apparent even during the Republic Day parade this year, where
the posters of Jayalalitha could be seen everywhere.
After so many successful cases, JD(U)s proved out to be a failed experiment. When after
ten months of ruling, Manjhi was asked by the party to step down, he declined, and the
political drama that ensued after that was quite interesting to observe.

Yesterday, Manjhi quitted as the Chief Minister of Bihar, even prior to the vote of confidence
could be casted. Nitish Kumar is to be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for another
term on Sunday.
The other important angle to the Manjhi episode is the caste one. Jitan Ram Manjhi belongs
to a scheduled caste, and him resigning as Chief Minister would draw the sympathy of
Dalits, even if the larger population favors Nitish Kumar. This could mean reduced votes for
the JD(U) in future elections from the Dalit population, and this would be especially
significant if JR Manjhi joins any prominent political rival party in Bihar. As the end result of
this political drama of Bihar, Nitish Kumar still ended up being the Chief Minister, perhaps
only with reduced political support.
All this political drama that ensued in Bihar with the appointment and resignation of Jitan
Ram Manjhi as the chief minister of Bihar should have taught an important lesson to all
puppeteer politicians including Nitish Kumar; keep a tight hand on the strings of your
puppet, lest they slip out of your hands, the result could be devastating!