If someone were to hold a gun to my head and say you have three choices: vote for Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar or a bullet between your eyes, I’d definitely choose to live and in my current frame of mind maybe choose Modi over Nitish, for I would at least know what I am getting. Whatever he is, Narendra Modi is no hypocrite. Nitish, alas, must go down as being the most slippery politician of our times, who tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds and then fell between two stools. The grand alliance is now history but in the grand contest that Nitish Kumar himself set up with Narendra Modi, it’s Game, Set and Match to Modi.Nitish may retain the chair of CM of Bihar for a while, but it’s only a matter of time before the BJP encircles him, chews him up and if he is not required as the mukhauta (mask) for their Patna dispensation, make no mistake, they will spit him out. It’s unlikely that the state unit of the BJP would trust him while it’s very likely that Modi and Amit Shah would never forget the insults he once heaped on them.More damaging for Nitish, there’s no good reason why people should trust him as he has in effect gone against the campaign line of 2015. It’s possible that they may stick with him since the opposition is in bad shape: Lalu Yadav and family may end up in jail (or at least protracted legal battles) and the Congress is in a position where there appears to be nothing left to lose. All the same, credibility is one of the intangibles that matter in public life and Nitish has lost it. The presentation of jumping ship as a moral choice does not wash even in Patna where people reel off names of the many dons Nitish Kumar has, at different points in his history, given party tickets to.Indeed, the entire morality play of Nitish being holier than thou was meant for the audience of intellectual pundits outside Bihar and necessary only as long as the CM had national ambitions. Clearly they are over and he has metaphorically fallen at the feet of Modi and thanked him for tweeting in his support.There’s a bit of a mystery as to why Nitish has walked into a coup so clearly masterminded by the BJP. True, he has worked harmoniously with the BJP for decades. I was in fact present at the modest ceremony in the courtyard of Rashtrapati Bhavan when the process began as Nitish was sworn in as a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of 1998.Subsequently, it was the BJP that actually enabled his growth in terms of money and resources and helped position him as an alternative to Lalu, when the latter ran out of the social justice steam and got embroiled in the fodder scam. In campaign after campaign it would be junior partner BJP that would pick up the logistical costs such as paying for hired helicopters used for electioneering. Nitish finally got his chance in 2005 and excellent administrator that he is, in alliance with the BJP, ran the state for two terms.But the BJP of that era gave great room and respect to allies as it never imagined the party could get a simple majority on its own. Vajpayee was an amiable sort of individual, lacking in ruthlessness, while L K Advani, the real strategist, believed in the process of incremental growth with the help of crutches in the form of allies in the states.The BJP today is vastly different. It holds every constitutional office, determines the mainstream media narrative and it does not lean on allies but gradually takes over their space, as has happened with the AGP in Assam and is happening with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.From 2005 to 2013, Nitish kept his ally in check and determined the narrative of the state where he did indeed improve the law and order situation.Now there’s a reversal in the power equation: Nitish is at the mercy of a resurgent BJP and is not in a position to dictate terms to them. The BJP will unleash cadres and engage in social mobilisations that enhance their voter base that also overlaps with the JD (U) base.It, therefore, suits the BJP to diminish Nitish and they will work towards that end. They can bring him down when they want or continue till 2020 when the term of the current assembly ends. It’s all touch and go for Nitish but now he has nowhere to go without the BJP. He would therefore be hoping that Narendra Modi has mercy on him. Maybe another tweet will lift his morale.