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All eyes were trained on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, with the JD(U) president appearing to be inching towards his second political volte face in less than three years.
For Kumar, who has maintained a deafening silence over the turmoil in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, ignoring pleas from allies RJD, Congress and the Left to clear the confusion, it was business as usual.
According to PTI, Top leaders of the Janata Dal-United have rushed to the residence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the party president, amid strong indications that he was planning to quit the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and revert to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Leaders like former national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh, ‘Lalan’, minister and national general secretary Sanjay Kumar Jha and state legislative council chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur reached 1, Anney Marg, the CM’s official residence in Patna
The longest-serving CM began the day by flagging off a number of new fire brigade engines at the city’s veterinary college ground, which saw him address a mammoth party rally earlier this week.
There are strong rumours that he may resign and form a new government, armed with the BJP’s support.
Meanwhile , Janata Dal-United’s political adviser and spokesperson K C Tyagi made it all but clear that the grand alliance government in Bihar is on the verge of collapse and accused a section of the Congress leadership of repeatedly ‘insulting’ Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“The INDIA bloc is on the verge of collapse. The alliance of INDIA bloc parties is almost over in Punjab, West Bengal and Bihar,” he told reporters.
The goal and intentions with which Kumar, the JD-U president, succeeded in bringing non-Congress parties with the Congress have come unstuck, Tyagi said, asserting that their leader was ‘misunderstood’.
Kumar never hankered after a position in the alliance but a section of the Congress leadership repeatedly insulted him, he said.
Tyagi said he could not see as to how the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties could fight the ‘all-powerful’ Bharatiya Janata Party.
