The BJP will not have any truck with Nitish Kumar again, even if the Bihar chief minister wants so, top party sources have told News18. This comes amidst speculation in political circles lately of Kumar planning another political summersault in Bihar.
BJP sources said Kumar stands “exposed” and “weakened” and the party will not have any alliance or understanding with him again. A source said Kumar was in a difficult situation after his deputy and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has been charge-sheeted by the CBI in the land-for-jobs scam and the spectre of an arrest is hovering over him too. BJP sources also pointed to Home Minister Amit Shah’s strong attacks on Kumar in a rally in Bihar last week.
“Kumar had earlier withdrawn from the Mahagathbandhan alliance with RJD in 2017 after these allegations had first surfaced against Tejashwi Yadav and Kumar had asked Yadav to resign as the deputy CM. Now, he is in alliance with Tejashwi Yadav after the latter has been charge-sheeted — he stands exposed for standing with the corrupt,” a senior BJP leader who looks at Bihar told News18. BJP, in fact, plans to mount a campaign on this front.
Speculation arose on Nitish Kumar’s front after he held a meeting with JDU leader and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Monday after a long gap. The same day, CBI charge-sheeted Tejashwi in the land-for-jobs scam. Nitish Kumar has also been meeting all JDU legislators in Patna one-to-one for the last one week. However, BJP has consistently maintained that it will never ally with Nitish Kumar again after he ‘duped’ them to break the alliance with BJP last year and go back to RJD to continue as chief minister.
Amit Shah held a rally in Bihar last week where he took on Nitish Kumar and lambasted the latter’s efforts to draw up an opposition alliance against the BJP. Shah called Kumar ‘Paltu Babu’ and said leaders who had ditched the NDA “must be punished” by the electorate. Shah also said law and order had been collapsing under the present Bihar government and questioned Kumar’s track record as the state chief minister since 2005.
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