Nitish Kumar met his trusted leaders, like Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lalan Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Bijendra Gupta and Sanjay Jha, among others, at his residence.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has conducted a high-level meeting with top ministers and MLAs at his residence after returning from the event held at the Raj Bhavan on Friday. Furthermore, the Bihar CM has also called for a meeting with all the JD-U MLAs at his residence on Saturday. Amid the political crisis, speculation is rife that Nitish Kumar will soon be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for a seventh term as part of the BJP-led NDA.
The BJP will get two Deputy CM posts for backing Nitish Kumar, as was done after the 2020 Assembly elections. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is formulating a strategy to form a government with the BJP and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) in Bihar, the report said.
CM Nitish Kumar Meets Top Leaders From Party
Nitish Kumar’s trusted leaders, such as Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lalan Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Bijendra Gupta and Sanjay Jha, among others, were present at the CM’s residence during the meeting on Friday evening. Meanwhile, the CMO has asked all the JD-U MLAs to reach Patna by Friday night. Nitish Kumar is expected to announce his resignation before them and also give clarification as to what prompted him to take such a step.
Following the meeting, Nitish Kumar will submit his resignation officially to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. He will also claim to form the government with the support of the BJP and HAM. At present, JD-U has 45 MLAs, BJP 76 and HAM 4, totaling 125 MLAs—three more than 122—the magic figures required to form the government.
JD-U, BJP And RJD Call For Meetings
It will be interesting if a few MLAs don’t turn up for Saturday’s meeting, as that might make life tough for Nitish Kumar as well as the NDA. Besides JD-U, the BJP and the RJD have also called meetings of their MLAs on Saturday. RJD supremo Lalu Prasad is monitoring the situation very closely. At present, RJD has 79 MLAs, Congress has 19 and the Left Party has 12.
If Nitish switches sides, this will mark the fourth time in just over a decade that he will do it.
Nitish’s shift would deal a severe blow to the ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar as well as the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level that was formed to take on the BJP-led Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls.
Bihar CM’s Political Turnarounds
Notably, Nitish Kumar, after parting ways with the BJP in 2022, took on the initiative of coordinating all opposition forces to jointly take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling party in the national election. He hosted the first meeting of opposition parties in Patna, and it was widely believed that he would eventually be the coalition’s convenor.
However, in a curt response to media queries, RJD MP Manoj Jha said the Bihar chief minister must “clear the confusion” by evening. Manoj Jha also said the RJD is willing to continue the alliance and that it never played such games.
“We can only request Nitish Kumar to clear the confusion by this evening. This confusion about the alliance, which is affecting the normal lives of people, is very clear from our side. So this confusion emanating from media reports is also confusing us. You will not see any comments from our side. So I will request that he clear up the confusion and ‘idhar-udhar’. The chief minister will also be watching media reports. RJD never did this khela (game),” he said.
In the Bihar Assembly of 243, the RJD has 79 MLAs, followed by the BJP’s 78, the JD(U)’s 45, the Congress’s 19, the CPI (M-L)’s 12, two each of the CPI(M) and CPI, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular)’s four seats, and the AIMIM’s one, plus one independent legislator.
(With inputs from agencies)