Is Nitish Kumar’s mental health an election issue for Biharis?

At first glance, the cream-coloured building in the village of Kalyan Bigha appeared too modest to be the ancestral home of Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s longest-serving chief minister. Tall trees lined one side of the road on which the two-storeyed house is located. The greenish water in the pond facing its entrance was completely still. Some freshly painted benches next to the pond bore banal messages on the importance of cleanliness.

Local officials keep Kalyan Bigha spruced up, villagers said, in anticipation of visitors such as this reporter, who come whenever the state is headed for polls. Though Kumar himself stopped contesting elections from this constituency decades ago, his popularity remains intact in his native village. Sitting under an old tree near the Janata Dal (United) supremo’s house, Ashok Shaw, 65, brushed aside questions about his mental health.

“He will rule so long as he lives,” declared Shaw, lifting his wrinkly arm and flexing his muscles as if to indicate that at the age of 74, Nitish Kumar was perfectly fit for another term in office.

In recent weeks, Kumar’s opponents have flagged his purportedly deteriorating mental health. During a virtual event on October 4, for example, cameras caught Kumar repeatedly folding his hands and smiling as though he was...

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