New Delhi: Political circles are abuzz with reports that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may join hands with BJP again, a party he had parted ways with in 2022. Mr Kumar’s exit would spell trouble for the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ coalition in Bihar.
Speculation are rife that Nitish Kumar will soon be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for a seventh term with the support of his previous ally BJP. The BJP will get two Deputy CM posts for backing Nitish Kumar, as was done after the 2020 Assembly elections, sources said.
Nitish Kumar has jumped between the BJP, Congress, and/or Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal since 2013. After parting ways with the BJP in 2022, he had taken on the initiative of uniting all opposition forces to jointly take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling party in the 2024 elections.
Nitish Kumar visited the Bihar Governor’s residence on Republic Day without his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, hinting at the discord between his party Janata Dal (United), and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Nitish Kumar’s former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi’s cryptic statement, “No door is closed in politics. The door can be opened if needed,” has added another layer of suspense to the development.
JD(U) MLA Gopal Mandal claimed that the Bihar Chief Minister was being abused and was not respected by his allies.
Mandal, however, said that Kumar will be “finished” if he changes the alliance again.
“Nitish Kumar is our undisputed top leader of the party. Wherever he goes, I follow him. I will stay with him,” Mandal said.
When asked whether some JD-U MLAs would go with the Mahagathbandhan, Mandal said that the MLAs of his party are “very strong and will not split”.
After returning from a high tea event held at the Raj Bhavan yesterday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting with his trusted ministers and MLAs at his residence.
As per sources, Nitish Kumar is formulating strategy to form the government with the BJP and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) in Bihar.
Nitish Kumar’s trusted leaders such as Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lalan Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Bijendra Gupta and Sanjay Jha, among others, were present at the CM’s residence during the meeting on Friday evening.
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi tried to speak with Nitish but failed to establish communication, sources said. Though the Congress brass tried its best to have a word with him, Nitish was not available, it is learnt.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Saturday said the BJP central leadership is “monitoring the political situation in Bihar”.
He said “Our Central leaders will take decision accordingly”.
“Nitish Kumar is currently the Chief Minister of Bihar. Lalu Prasad’s led RJD and Congress are the alliance partners of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar. Our Central leadership is monitoring the situationā¦Our Central leaders will take decisions accordingly”, the Union Rural Development minister said.
The Grand Alliance without JD(U) has 115 MLAs, including RJD (79), Congress (19), Left (16) and AIMIM (1) while NDA with Nitish will have 128 MLAs (BJ, JDU 45, HAMS 4 and Independent 1). The majority mark is 122 in the 243-member assembly.