As Slugfest For The Raisina Hills Starts From Now, Who Will Be The King-maker?
By D N Singh
Time has started ticking for the presidential election on July 25 in India. So has become the pace of increasing palpitations in the Bharatiya Janata Party in particular and in the NDA in particular.
There is a fractured scenario where the analysts wonder whether the NDA would be able to sail through  with the 48. 9 percentage and outnumber the opposition standing tall with 51.1 percentage votes.
On a practical note, the opposition enjoys an arithmetic comfort. But the end game that the NDA should be looking for a game changer, and that is from among the three or four regional chieftains.
As on date, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are the three states where the NDA can pitch for support to its candidature of a President.
Nitish Kumar headed Bihar seems changing its political climate a bit. Kumar and other political leaders in Bihar are almost in unison in support of a caste census which has suffered the rejection from the BJP during a recent Nitish-led delegation to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Modi reportedly said no to the proposal outrightly. To which Nitish and rest political parties have resolved to go for caste based census in defiance to the Center.
The second jitters which Nitish has sparked at the BJP was his recent few visits to the families of Lalu Prasad Yadav on being invited by Rabri Debi and Tejaswi Yadav on the occasion of Iftar. Not once but Nitish did visit to the above family thrice and the pictures of the get togethers went viral in the media much to the chagrin of the BJP.
Can Nitish send a shocker to the NDA by stitching an alliance with the RJD, speculation are rife in Bihar’s political circles.
It may be recalled that, in 2012 presidential elections, Nitish Kumar, being in NDA, JD(U) voted for the UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee.
As regards Odisha, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has so far maintained a studied posture on the issue. But his stance on the relations with the Center has never been confrontational so far.
It is different matter that, as a regional chieftain, when it is state or general elections, he prefers walking with his head on shoulders hardly departing from the political civility he is known for.
Jagan Reddy led Andhra Pradesh has some hitches which BJP is trying to sort out.
Coming to Telengana, C Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief minister might have different calculations as is evident from his recent meetings with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, NCP patriarch Sarad Pawar and the Shiva Sena recently.
Last but not the least, news making  round that he is going to meet West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, very soon, who is known for not disguising her enmity towards the BJP-led NDA at the Center.
There is an interesting shadow boxing in July when it should be a clash between BJP which enjoys a brute majority and a few non-BJP states with an unassailable reign.
