Patna: Bihar's political equilibrium was swaying at the rate of knots on Tuesday with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar snapping ties with BJP and breaking the alliance by resigning from his post only to lay ground to form a new government with RJD, Congress, HAM and Left parties. In the joint meeting with his new allies, Nitish was chosen as leader of the 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance).
The veteran politician is set to take oath as Bihar Chief Minister at 2 pm on Wednesday. Tejashwi Yadav, 32, is likely to serve as Deputy Chief Minister and shall take oath along with Nitish who resigned from the post of the chief minister and also staked the claim to form a new government with the support of 164 MLAs. He along with Tejashwi Yadav, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Bihar Congress in-charge Bhakta Charan Das went to Raj Bhavan to submit the letter having the signatures of 164 MLAs.
“We have submitted the supporting letter of the MLAs to the governor,” Nitish said while addressing the media outside Chief Minister's house. Since morning, there was a buzz in the state capital when all the political parties supporting Nitish held their respective legislature party meeting. While the CM held a meeting at 1, Aney Marg, Leader of Opposition and RJD leader Tejashwi held a meeting at 10, Circular Road residence.
During the meeting, JDU decided to expose BJP to present a solid reason for walking out of alliance with NDA and joining the Grand Alliance. Sources in the JDU said that during the meeting of the legislature party at least six audio clips were played in which MLAs were given lucrative offers by BJP sympathisers, as the latter tried to form a rebellion within the party.
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Significantly, After tendering his resignation, the erstwhile CM did not answer when a question was asked by reporters as to what his problem was with BJP. "It is a joint decision to leave NDA after the feedback from our leaders and the proposal was made before me which I accepted," Nitish said.
He did not speak anything when asked about being projected as PM candidate in the 2024 general election. After tendering his resignation to governor, Nitish went to 10, Circular Road residence to meet Tejashwi Yadav and Rabri Devi.
While meeting Rabri Devi at her residence, Nitish said that she must forget the 2017 episode and it was his mistake to leave the Grand Alliance. In 2015 JDU and RJD had contested assembly election in alliance but in 2017 Nitish dumped RJD and formed the government with support of BJP. That time itself, Lalu had coined the word “Paltu Ram” for Nitish.
However, all the grievances have been resolved now after Tejashwi accepted him as leader of the Grand Alliance once again. Soon after staking the claim to form the government, both Nitish and Tejashwi spoke to the media, during which Yadav was more vocal and slammed BJP for allegedly destroying the democracy.
"JP Nadda comes to Bihar and says that all the regional parties will be finished. What does he want to say? Bihar is the land of democracy and he wants to finish regional parties, which means he wants to finish opposition. We will not allow him to do so. I thank chief minister Nitish Kumar for taking such a bold decision. BJP wanted to finish the party (JDU) and they did the same with Akali Dal in Punjab. BJP just does one thing, scare those people who get scared and buy those who get sold" he said.
Asked about earlier having differences with Nitish and being the PM candidate, Tejashwi said, “We are 'Chacha-Bhatija' (uncle-nephew) and in every family quarrel takes place. We should not think about those quarrels. As far as the PM candidate is concerned, I leave this question to Nitish ji; however, he is the most mature politician in India.”
Nitish on other hand said, “We have the support of seven political parties having 164 MLAs and now we will work together to take Bihar ahead. The decision to leave NDA is a consensus.”
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BJP state unit president Sanjay Jaiswal, meanwhile, slammed Nitish Kumar while addressing a press conference at the BJP office in Patna. He alleged that by breaking the alliance with BJP, Nitish has betrayed people's mandate. He also called him a habitual cheater.
"In the 2020 assembly election, the mandate was given to NDA. We won 74 seats but despite having a bigger number Nitish Kumar was made leader of NDA as promised by PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. People of Bihar and BJP have been cheated by Nitish.
The people of Bihar will not tolerate this and teach him a lesson. He is a habitual cheater. What differences have been made from 2017 to now in terms of corruption charges against Tejashwi Yadav on which Nitish had left the Grand Alliance," Jaiswal said while accompanied by Tarkishore Prasad, Mangal Pandey and Nitin Nabin.
Former union minister and MP of Patna Saheb Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Nitish ji has cheated the people of Bihar and he has betrayed the people's mandate. He has always cheated the people. He wants to enjoy the power and at the same time he makes allegations. I want to ask why Nitish cheated people again and again. If BJP was insulting him, why did he stay with us for such a long time. It is because of PM Modi, the NDA formed the government in Bihar.”
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spoke to Nitish Kumar as 19 MLAs of the Congress party would be part of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar. The total figure of 164 comprises RJD-79, JDU-45, Congress-19, Left -16, HAM- 4 and one independent MLA.
