After the past few weeks of speculations and rumours of a possibility of a new government and alliance taking shape in Bihar, it is very clear that Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal United chief Nitish Kumar is weighing his options and is extremely likely to return to the NDA alliance, once again ditching Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Infamous for flipping sides, Kumar has previously broken alliances with NDA and has also done the same with RJD. His party was in alliance with BJP-led NDA as recently as August 2022 when he broke that alliance to return to an alliance with RJD. According to media reports, Kumar is expected to inform his party about the decision by tonight and tender his resignation on Sunday.
While the official confirmation for Kumar and JDU rejoining NDA is yet to be made, several leaders from Bihar, as well as senior national leaders, are already making clear statements to the effect. Here is a look at all the comments made in the past 24 hours that make the picture clearer.
BJP
Senior leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Ravi Shankar Prasad arrived in Patna for a state-level meeting in the state capital. They refused to talk about the rumours, but asserted that all decisions will be taken keeping the interests of Bihar as the only agenda.
RJD
With Yadav holding the speaker’s position in Bihar assembly and a sizeable number of leaders by his side, his party is in no mood to buckle down under pressure. In a meeting held Saturday, his son and Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav said that the game is yet to begin in state politics. Reportedly, he also said that Kumar is a respectable man, adding that not everything lies in the hands of the chief minister.
Congress
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a press meet that his party hopes Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will continue to be a part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc alliance. Ramesh added that Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge tried to reach out to Kumar, but did not succeed. A PTI report quoted Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Supriyo Bhattacharya claiming that the INDIA bloc “did not trust” Kumar and therefore did not make him the convenor of the bloc.
JDU
KC Tyagi – a senior leader in Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) – also told the media that the Opposition alliance is on the “brink of collapse”. He said that the alliance is falling apart in the states of Bihar and Punjab as well as West Bengal. Insisting that the situation may not be too better in Uttar Pradesh, he reminded reporters that Akhilesh Yadav told Congress to work with an open heart.