INDIA bloc certain to disintegrate in Bihar; good development to follow for NDA: Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras

Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras said differences between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav have deepened.

Amid the JD(U)'s perceived unhappiness with the Opposition INDIA bloc constituents, a key BJP ally from Bihar on January 20 claimed that the State's ruling combine is "100%" certain to break and a "good development" for the NDA will follow the Ram temple consecration ceremony.

Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras said differences between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav have deepened.

"Their alliance is 100% certain to break. 'Kharmas' (a period considered inauspicious in Hindu belief) has ended. The idol of Lord Ram will be consecrated on January 22 in Ayodhya. An auspicious period has begun and whatever will happen will be good for the BJP-led NDA," he told PTI.

The Dalit leader said the entire country, including Bihar, is immersed in the fervour surrounding the Ram temple, and the Opposition has no hope in the elections.

Asked if the issue will have an impact on Bihar, where the RJD-JD(U)-Congress-Left alliance is considered strong, Mr. Paras asserted that they would all be swept aside in the Lok Sabha polls, adding that the combine will soon collapse.

The JD(U) has long pushed for its president Kumar to be given a key position in the Opposition INDIA grouping. The party, however, was cold to the offer of Mr. Kumar being made the alliance's convener as it came along with the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the bloc's chairperson.

There is a view within the JD(U) that Mr. Kumar's seniority as the alliance's longest-serving Chief Minister and his efforts to bring together the Opposition parties have not been duly acknowledged. Mr. Prasad and his son, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, met with Mr. Kumar on Friday and later, dismissed talks of a rift in their alliance.