Nitish Kumar stakes claim for Bihar govt formation after dumping BJP

File image of Bihar CM and JD(U) patriarch Nitish Kumar (PTI photo)

Shortly after resigning as the chief minister of Bihar to discontinue his alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nitish Kumar again staked claim for government formation, with support from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress and the Left parties.

"I came here to meet governor and gave my resignation. There are seven parties including 164 MLAs along with Independents in Mahagathbandahan," Kumar, the de-facto chief of the Janata Dal (United), told reporters outside the Raj Bhawan, after tendering his resignation.

After submitting his resignation, Kumar met the governor again, joined by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and representatives of the Congress and Left Front as they presented the letter of support from the MLAs.

In the 243-member assembly, the RJD is currently the single-largest party with 79 MLAs. The JD(U) has 45 legislators, Congress 19 and the CPI(ML)-led Left Front 17.

The dramatic turn of events in Bihar politics came hours after Kumar convened a meeting of his party MLAs, where he reportedly conveyed to them that the alliance with the BJP is "over" and the saffron ally was "not giving respect" and "conspiring" against them.

Outside the Raj Bhawan, he told the press that all MPs and MLAs of the JD(U) "are at a consensus" to quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

Bihar | After tendering his resignation, Nitish Kumar arrives at the residence of Rabri Devi in Patna pic.twitter.com/lwAGHSrupv

— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2022

"I did not like the attempts that were being made to create divisions in the society," Kumar said, as he addressed the press outside the Raj Bhawan.

Kumar's switch-over to the grand alliance has also sparked off speculations of him being projected as the opposition's joint prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

On being asked by about the possibility of leading the opposition camp in the next general elections, Kumar refused to comment. Yadav, who accompanied him before the reporters, said he "would leave the question to be answered by the chief minister". "There is no denying in the fact that he is the most-experienced chief minister of the country," he added.

The RJD leader further claimed that the BJP's conspiracy against the JD(U) was "not hidden from anyone" in Bihar. "BJP president JP Nadda came here said they will end regional parties. Will this be accepted in Bihar, the citadel of democracy?" Yadav said.

"Across the Hindi heartland, BJP does not have any alliance partner. History tells that BJP destroys the parties with whom it forms an alliance. We did see that happening in Punjab and Maharashtra," he added.

The BJP, which had so far refrained from mounting an attack on Kumar, accused him of "betraying the public mandate" after he submitted his resignation.

"We fought the 2020 polls together under NDA, the mandate was for JD(U) and the BJP. Despite winning more seats, Nitish Kumar was made the CM due to the pre-poll promise made to him. Whatever happened today is a betrayal of Bihar's public," BJP's state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal said.

RJD sources who spoke to news agency ANI said there will be "no differences on allotment of portfolios". This came shortly after reports claimed that Yadav was adamant on being given the home ministry charge -- the portfolio being currently held by Kumar.

The RJD sources added that the new government's "first priority" will be to provide jobs to the unemployed youth. The lack of jobs was, notably, the key poll plank used by Yadav in the 2020 assembly elections.

This will be the second time within a span of seven years when the JD(U) and RJD, considered to be arch-rivals in Bihar politics, will be joining hands. The two parties, along with the Congress, had contested together in the 2015 assembly polls and formed a coalition government. In 2017, however, Kumar had walked out of the grand alliance and re-united with the BJP.

The JD(U)-BJP-led alliance had won the 2020 assembly polls with a narrow margin, but the seat-count of Kumar's party dropped from 73 in the previous elections to 43. They party later marginally improved its tally to 45 after victory in two bypolls.

A section of the JD(U) alleged that the Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) was propped up by the BJP to contest aggressively against Kumar's party in the 2020 polls to reduce its electoral tally.

The tensions between the JD(U) and BJP, which kept simmering as the latter's state-level leaders were accused of taking potshots at the CM, reached a breaking-point after JD(U) leader RCP Singh was accused by a section of Kumar's party of conspiring to create a split.

The party had, last week, asked Singh to submit details related to his properties as it suspected irregularities. This led to Singh announcing his resignation from the JD(U), calling it a "sinking ship" and adding that "Nitish Kumar will never be the prime minister even if he take seven births".

The JD(U) struck back, saying that the party is not a sinking ship but has identified the moles. "Two conspiracies were hatched against Nitish Kumar in recent times — one the Chirag model of 2020, which was responsible for bringing down our Assembly seats to 43. Another had been in the making and was nipped in the bud,” JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh said.