Patna: Nitish Kumar’s statement that he would “rather die than go back to the Bharatiya Janata Party” now appears to be a resolve based on a robust strategy to take on the saffron juggernaut in the 2024 general elections.On January 30, Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, without naming any one but appearing to imply the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Bihar chief minister said, “Who killed Bapu Gandhi? Have we forgotten? We have to create awareness in the new generation about the killers [of Gandhi].” Nitish paid tributes to the father of the nation at the Gandhi Ghat in Patna on the day. Speaking from there, he appeared to hold Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the intolerance in the country today. “We had aligned with the BJP of the A.B. Vajpayee-era,” Nitish continued. “We broke from it [the BJP] in 2013 when it lost its character [Modi was declared the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in 2013]. But they nagged us and got to be with us in 2017. Subsequently, they defrauded us in the 2020 assembly elections. We have learned our lessons… I would rather die than go back to them.” The Congress factorAs Nitish Kumar spoke about BJP-RSS iniquities at Gandhi Ghat, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress did the same in Srinagar at the conclusion of his Bharat Jodo Yatra.Like Nitish, Rahul held the RSS-BJP responsible for the destruction of everything that India stands for and resolved to fight against Hindutva till the end.However, neither the JD(U) nor the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Lalu Prasad Yadav had been part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. This had surprised political observers because the Congress is part of the grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan that is currently in power in Bihar. The alliance is composed of the JD(U), the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties and has the specific intention of squashing the BJP in Bihar. The alliance is also part of Nitish’s larger plan to unite all non-BJP parties in the country to fight the saffron party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.According to the grapevine, Nitish and Lalu do not like the idea of the Congress projecting itself as the “main spearhead” against the BJP, at least in the Hindi heartland composed of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, which together account for 134 Lok Sabha seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won 113 of these 134 seats.Also read: At National Council Meet, JD(U) Authorises Nitish Kumar to Resume Efforts to Unite OppositionNitish apparently believes that any overt or covert message that the Congress will lead the fight against Hindutva in these states might offer an opportunity to the BJP to divide the non-BJP votes the way it did in the 2022 assembly elections in Gujarat.The Bihar chief minister, who has decided that JD(U) president Lallan Singh will attend the inauguration of the Telangana secretariat on February 17, is learnt to be working on a strategy to ensure that the Congress “realistically assesses the strength of the regional parties, respects them on the basis of their strength and moves ahead in a politically pragmatic manner” in the run up to the general elections.Nitish also believes that those who are over emphasising his “prime ministerial ambitions” are doing so at the BJP’s behest to create confusion. “I am not in the race to become the prime minister. My only goal is to unite the opposition parties,” he remarked at the media gathering on January 30. “We can’t afford to make even small mistakes. The Congress must understand that the Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh, and for that matter the JD(U) and the RJD in Bihar, have bigger stakes in defeating the BJP. The construction of the correct narrative and the correct tactics is more important than showing photos of unity,” said Sudhir Panwar, the Lucknow-based leader and strategist of the Samajwadi Party.Strategy in BiharOperating with Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu’s son and Bihar’s deputy chief minister, Nitish has been working meticulously on his plan to defeat the BJP in the state in 2024. The strategy is simple and uncluttered. The NDA had won 39 out of 40 seats in 2019; this figure has to be reversed in 2024. The C-Voters’ survey for the news channel Aaj Tak has given 25 seats to the Mahagathbandhan in the present scenario, which indicates defeat for the BJP. Right now Nitish is working on three fronts in his Samadhan Yatra (solution journey). First, he moves about Bihar’s districts almost every day to review the ongoing development work and ensure the delivery of the benefits of welfare schemes to the people. He also uses this opportunity to reach out to the non-Yadav Extremely Backward Classes who account for about 28% of the state’s voters, as well as the Mahadalits – the very sections of society he had won over in 2005 by ensuring reservation in local bodies and jobs. Since the RJD enjoys the absolute support of the Yadavs and Muslims who together account for almost 30% of the votes in the state, Nitish and Lalu enjoy almost impregnable clout over most of the backward classes in the state. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has succeeded in breaking into the echelons of the non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as well as the Dalits. But it is far from doing so in Bihar.Next, the Bihar government is carrying out a caste census that is set to work as a cementing force among the OBCs, forging unity among them the way the Mandal Commission report did in the 1990s. The BJP, with Brahmins and Banias as its core support base, is uncomfortable with the survey though it is cautious in speaking about it.Also read: Why the BJP Is Afraid of a Caste CensusAnd third and most important, Nitish and Tejashwi are heavily advertising employment in Bihar. “The Mahagathbandhan government that came to power in August 2022 has already given about 1.25 lakh jobs in four months. Very soon, we will meet the target of giving 10 lakh jobs as announced by Tejashwi Yadav,” said the RJD’s spokesman and member of parliament, Manoj Jha.Sources in the Mahagathbandhan say that Nitish and Tejashwi will organise job distribution events at appropriate intervals in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections. They know well that the BJP is on a sticky wicket on the issue of unemployment, with Narendra Modi failing in his much vaunted promise to give two crore jobs to the youths every year. The duo will thus stretch the exercise to their advantage.After the Samadhan Yatra, which will likely conclude at the end of February, and the assembly budget session, Nitish will hold a second round of dialogues with non-BJP parties across the country.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, media educator and independent researcher in social anthropology