Nitish Kumar may skip Nyay Yatra; likely to join hands with NDA again

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar likely to exit ruling mahagathbandhan and return to BJP-led NDA, causing political turmoil.

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar looks set to exit the ruling mahagathbandhan in the State as well the Opposition’s INDIA bloc and return to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Mr. Kumar had played a crucial role in shaping the INDIA bloc.

It was on Wednesday that the West Bengal and Punjab Chief Ministers announced that the Trinamool Congress and the AAP would contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha poll in their respective States on their own.

Mr. Kumar is not likely to attend Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is scheduled to enter north Bihar in Kishanganj on January 29. The Congress had earlier invited Mr. Kumar to participate in the party’s public meeting in neighbouring Purnea on January 30.

The political developments, meanwhile, intensified in Bihar on January 25 with the usual bonhomie between Cabinet colleagues and officials missing at the government’s Cabinet meeting that lasted only for about 15 minutes. Sources in the meeting told The Hindu that “the usual verve between Ministers from the JD(U) and ruling alliance partner the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was clearly missing”. The officials too came out hurriedly once the meeting was over.

Soon after, three consecutive posts on social media platform X by Rohini Acharya, the Singapore-based daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, set off speculation on the rift between the ruling allies the JD(U) and the RJD.

“Only those whose ideology changes with the blow of wind claim to be a socialist veteran,” wrote Ms. Acharya in Hindi in one of her posts obliquely directed at Mr. Kumar. She put another post saying, “people who cannot see their own shortcomings but continue to throw mud at others with impudence”. Her third post said: “What outrage will be there when somebody who is undeserving is given prominence? Who can question the method where there is deceit in one’s own intentions?”