Why Nitish Kumar is playing the name game

India Today

29-05-2025

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated June 2, 2025)In India, and in global spaces to which its heritage speaks, the name 'Gaya' is a suffix in 'Bodh Gaya'—and evokes the Buddha. A place of silence, under a pipal by the banks of the Phalgu, where Gautama attained Buddhahood. Yet, on May 15, something ruffled that quietude. 'Gaya' was being renamed as 'Gayaji'. The whole district. No criticism came, not even from the Opposition, as the Nitish Kumar cabinet cleared this old rechristening proposal. Some, though, noticed a striking departure from Nitish's own record. In over 20 years at the helm of Bihar, he had never before approved the renaming of a single district. In yielding now, months short of an assembly election, he, too, has bathed in a different river.advertisement
TO INFINITY: The Vishnupad temple by Phalgu river, Gaya; top-right, the Great Buddha Statue in Bodh Gaya; below, CM Nitish Kumar
For, Gaya has another layer of heritage, attached to Hindu belief and practice. In the city, 15 km north of Bodh Gaya, the banks of the Phalgu host the 18th century Vishnupad temple, built on a site swathed in sacred myth. On these sands, believers perform the pind daan to the departed: it's the final and holiest site prescribed for the ritual. The appending of the honorific 'ji', connoting respect, is a nod to this stream of veneration.In 2010, Nitish had quietly held out against even BJP titan L.K. Advani's passionate call for a restoration of Patna's ancient name, Pataliputra. After Gaya, that idea is in circulation again. What the currency of renaming politics in Bihar shows is Nitish's new vulnerability within the NDA. His once-junior coalition partner, the BJP, has clearly taken over the control room: it's scripting the narrative. BJP stalwarts, who had long lobbied for Gaya's renaming, made no secret of their jubilation. Even members of Nitish's JD(U) voiced public approval, nodding to tradition.advertisement
This is not the only sign of Nitish's recent deference to his ally. In a February cabinet expansion, he took in seven new ministers—all from the BJP, swelling the saffron contingent to 21, overshadowing the JD(U)'s 13 within the 36strong ministry. That was both proof of a new ascendancy, and an accelerator of altered dynamics.THE BJP'S NEW DOMINANCEWhat remains to be seen is the comparative tally after ticket distribution later this year. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Nitish had wangled 16 seats and won 12—the same as the BJP's haul from its 17. Yet, in the assembly, 80 chairs are marked saffron (from 37 in 2005). The JD(U) has only 45. The BJP extracts valuable resources from Brand Nitish: his welfarist image, his loyal blocs of women and EBC voters. But it has left in pointed ambiguity the question of remuneration. Nitish still doesn't have the nod as a clear chief ministerial face. For now, he's a useful frontispiece. That the edifice behind him is Hindutva was only reconfirmed at Gaya.advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine