- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, on Tuesday (9) ended his party Janata Dal (United)’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi and was set to meet the state’s governor later in the evening to resign as the chief minister.
Kumar, who was reportedly upset with his coalition partner in the state over the alleged tendency of the saffron party’s central leadership to to control affairs, met with his party’s state legislators before arriving at the decision on dumping the saffron party, for the second time.
A senior leader of the JD(U), which has been in power for a while now with alliances made with BJP as well as non-BJP parties from time to time, told Indian channel NDTV ahead of the high-profile meeting, “Expect explosive news”.
NDTV reported citing sources that Kumar will be accompanied by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and possibly other Opposition leaders who are likely to back him to head a new government, during his meeting with the governor Phagu Chauhan.
The BJP’s Bihar unit was also set to have a press conference on Tuesday to address the issue of being dumped for a second time by Kumar.
Tension between the JD(U) and BJP reached a breakpoint over Kumar’s concern that Indian home minister Amit Shah was working overtime to split his party. He also blamed former party president RCP Singh who he accused of playing as Shah’s proxy. Singh quit the JD(U) on the weekend after being accused of indulging in corruption.
The RJD, which is Bihar’s single-largest party and was previously in alliance with Kumar till he dumped it in 2017 to go with the BJP, also had a meeting to discuss the state’s situation. The party is expected to formally announce its support for Kumar following which Yadav is expected to accompany Kumar to meet the governor.
Kumar and non-BJP parties formed a Grand Alliance during the 2015 state elections and formed the government, ending his decades-long relationship with the BJP. In 2013, he had also pulled the JD(U) out of the National Democratic Alliance after Modi was elevated as the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate.
But he Grand Alliance (which also included the Indian National Congress) was shortlived as Kumar accused Yadav and his brother of corruption and used it as a reason to end it and return to the BJP.
The Congress has also started a series of meetings in Bihar to decide on its stand on possible support to Kumar, NDTV added.
According to certain quarters, Kumar is convinced that the BJP top brass wants to replicate the Maharashtra model in Bihar. In the western state, former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was forced to resign after a rebel leader from his Shiv Sena staged a massive revolt and formed a government with the splinter group with the backing of the BJP. Shinde succeeded Thackeray as the chief minister of Maharashtra.
