BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on December 28 said that the JD(U)-BJP alliance in Bihar was 'unbreakable' and will not have any impact of six JD(U) MLAs joining the saffron party in Arunachal Pradesh last week.
The BJP leader's remarks come a day after JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said the switching of party’s MLAs in the BJP was not a good sign for alliance politics.
“We have a strong alliance in Bihar and it’s unbreakable. Arunachal Pradesh episode would have no impact here,” Modi told reporters during a function organised on the death anniversary of former Union minister Arun Jaitley in Patna.
The former Bihar deputy CM said that Nitish Kumar did not want to be the chief minister after the NDA win in the state in November.
“He didn’t want to be the CM. We wanted him to become CM. We had already projected him as CM candidate and he became NDA CM. He agreed to our request to take up the job,” said.
Six of the seven JD(U) MLAs joined the ruling BJP in Arunachal Pradesh last week reducing improving BJP’s tally to 48 in the 60-member House. JD (U) now has only one MLA left in the house. The Congress and the National People’s Party (NPP) have four members each.
The JD(U), then led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, won seven of the 15 seats it contested in the 2019 assembly elections, and emerged as the second largest party after the BJP, which had bagged 41 seats.
Modi’s statement is being seen as a damage control move by the BJP after JD (U) accused it of not adhering to coalition dharma in Arunachal Pradesh.
While CM Nitish Kumar downplayed the exit saying that they had gone their own way,JD (U) national spokesperson KC Tyagi had said Arunachal Pradesh had surely caused heartburns in JD (U). He however said that the case would not impact JD (U)’s alliance with BJP in Bihar.
JD (U) is part of the NDA government at the Centre and fought the Bihar election successfully in alliance with the BJP.
Rajya Sabha member Ramchandra Prasad Singh, a close confidant of Bihar Nitish Kumar, was on December 27 chosen as the new president of JD(U).
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