INDIA.Bihar: Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar was re-sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday afternoon after announcing a new “Grand Alliance” that includes Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other opposition parties.
Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister of any Hindi-speakin state, seems to have acquired an impression of indispensability when it comes to the seat of power in Bihar. However, Nitish Kumar said, “How BJP treats people is in front of you.”
“We followed all the coalition dharma, it is Nitish Kumar who has betrayed it,” said Union minister Giriraj Singh of the BJP.
Nitish Kumar’s party says this is a false claim and that the BJP, desperate to stop Nitish Kumar from forming a new alliance, has tried to force other parties to sign with him. “Yesterday they were trying to call the RJD leaders and they said you can go but after three to four days. But they don’t have an agent anymore to split us. They only had one agent and Nitish got him removed,” said Rajiv Ranjan ‘Lalan Singh’, who is the president of Nitish Kumar’s party.
After the formation of the new Mahahgatbandhan government in Bihar, Janata Dal-United national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh accused the BJP for pointing fingers at his party of violating the coalition pact.
“We have not violated any coalition pact. It was the BJP who violated the coalition pact and cheated the JD-U. After the 2022 Arunachal Pradesh Assembly election, we had seven MLAs and BJP broke away from six and merged them with the party. That was the violation of the coalition pact despite the JD-U being in NDA,” he said
His comment reiterates the malevolent role that Nitish Kumar has given to RCP Singh, who was his trusted aide and the only JDU representative in the union cabinet till July 7 before corruption notice was sent to him.
That’s when Nitish Kumar refused to extend his tenure in the Rajya Sabha, which meant RCP Singh, suspected of switching loyalties to Amit Shah, had to resign. He was accused of corruption by Lalan Singh over the weekend. And since then, he has been named by his former party for trying to lure MLAs to defect to the BJP.
Today, the BJP sought to prove that, contrary to earlier reports, it tried to even out Nitish Kumar once it became clear that he was angry. “Only two days ago, Amit Shah was on the phone to Nitish Kumar… he said ‘there is nothing to fear,” senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told NDTV today.
The BJP needs to counter the accusations from Nitish Kumar’s team that it does not respect allies. BJP president JP Nadda said about a week ago that “Other parties will be destroyed, BJP itself will survive” offered by Team Nitish as proof that the Prime Minister’s party is not shy about its commitment to sabotage regional players who choose to partner with it.
Nitish Kumar has established himself as politically hungry. He disowned the BJP (for the second time) and renewed his vows with Tejashwi Yadav, the 32-year-old leader whom he accused of corruption in 2017 before dumping him.
Also Read: Nitish Kumar To Swear in As Chief Minister Of Bihar For the Eighth Time
