'Pre-planned, kept us in dark': Kharge attacks Nitish Kumar as Bihar CM forms govt with NDA

Mallikarjun Kharge claimed on Sunday that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to leave the Mahagathbandhan and join the NDA was "pre-planned" and accused the chief of the JD(U) of hiding information from the INDIA alliance.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand): Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's move to split from Mahagathbandhan and to join the NDA was 'pre-planned' and accused the JD(U) Chief of keeping the INDIA bloc in dark. Speaking to ANI, the Congress President alleged that the JD(U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 'planned' to break the INDIA bloc as such decisions can not be taken in a hurry.

"Such decisions can not be taken in a hurry...This shows that it was all pre-planned. To break the INDIA alliance they (BJP-JD(U)) planned all this... He (Nitish Kumar) kept us in the dark, he kept Lalu Yadav in the dark," Kharge said. JDU leader Nitish Kumar's move to end his alliance with the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal to revive his tie-up with the BJP comes as a massive setback to the INDIA bloc months before it takes on the formidable BJP in Lok Sabha polls.

Nitish Kumar, after parting ways with the BJP in 2022, took on the initiative of uniting all opposition forces to jointly take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling party in the national election. Nitish Kumar took the oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time in Raj Bhawan, Patna, switching sides again, this time with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

It was for the second time in two years that Nitish Kumar had jumped the ship, his fifth crossover in a little over a decade, preceding his ninth time as chief minister. Two Deputy CMs from the BJP, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, and six other ministers, including Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Santosh Kumar Suman, Shrawan Kumar, and others, also took the oath today.

In 2000, Nitish became CM for the first time after campaigning against RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's 'Jungle Raaj'. Till now, he has been Bihar's CM on eight occasions. In 2013, Nitish broke ranks with the NDA after a 17-year alliance following the announcement of Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

He expressed his displeasure to the BJP over Modi's selection as the PM face, and after the BJP decided not to change its decision, Kumar left the alliance. In 2017, Nitish forged a grand alliance with the RJD and Congress and returned as chief minister in 2015. He walked out of the grand alliance in 2017, accusing the RJD of corruption and choking governance in the state.

In 2022, Nitish Kumar snapped ties with the BJP once again, alleging the BJP was conspiring against him and trying to influence JD-U MLAs to rebel against him.