There Are Ups And Downs In Politics: Shashi Tharoor On Nitish Kumar ‘Setback’

The JD(U)’s exit from the INDIA bloc is a setback in Bihar, but it will re-double the determination of people to fight for the right cause, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said on Sunday. JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Sunday took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for a record ninth time.

Mr Kumar had earlier in the day resigned as the chief minister, saying “things were not working well” for him in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and in the opposition bloc INDIA, and staked a claim to form a new government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago.

“It (Nitish Kumar’s exit from the INDIA alliance) is certainly a setback in Bihar, but the fact remains that in politics there are ups and downs. I think in many ways it will redouble the determination of the people elsewhere as well as in Bihar to fight for the right things in the right way,” he told the news agency PTI here on the sidelines of an event.

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“The problem is that some individuals clearly have not been able to make up their minds where they stand on the political spectrum and what they want to see happening in this country,” he said.

When asked about the TMC in West Bengal and AAP in Punjab had also announced their decision to go alone, he said it was always understood that the negotiations would take place on a state by state basis.

There cannot be one “fix all” formula in all the states because there are different political realities in different states, he said.

Citing examples, Mr Tharoor said the Congress and CPI(M) cannot be expected to come together and start sharing seats in Kerala, but in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and DMK are allies.

“So, it varies from state to state. You cannot take one place and just generalise from that,” he said.

If the ongoing discussions don’t yield a positive outcome in one state, it does not necessarily jeopardise the INDIA bloc in another state, he said.