New Delhi: Hours after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation, only to take oath again, this time in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), his former alliance partners in the INDIA alliance, who he has squarely blamed for his exit, sought to play down the blow to the bloc.
Nitish’s former deputy chief minister, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, said that he holds no grudges, the public will give a befitting response.
“They had no vision, the chief minister who was seen as a tired chief minister (thake huye mukhya mantri), we made him work. I don’t want to make any personal remarks. We have no anger nor are we upset. We have followed the dharma of gathbandhan, and we will go to the people with this. But I want to make it clear that the game has just started. The game is still left. What I say, I do. You can take it in writing, the JD(U) will be finished in 2024. They can do what they want. But the public is with us. We thank and congratulate the BJP as well for taking the JD(U),” he said in a statement.
“We had formed the government with a lot of hope. He has left. He has murdered the gathbandhan. The public will give their reply.”
Yadav also said that the INDIA alliance is “strong” and congratulated the BJP.
“INDIA alliance is strong. Whatever happens, happens for the best,” he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a statement that the party knew about his Nitish’s impending exit and the country had seen many “aayaram gayaram”.
“We had received this information from Laluji and Tejashwi that he (Kumar) would leave us,” he said to reporters on Sunday.
“We should stay together and fight together. If he wants to stay with us, he will, but he wants to go if he will. We had this information but to keep the INDIA alliance intact we did not say anything to not give out the wrong message. That is why over the last two days we are seeing the developments. But we had the information from the Bihar deputy chief minister and Lalu Prasad. And today this has come true. But this country has many such ‘aayaram gayaram’,” he said.
Earlier in a statement on Sunday, Nitish said that the reason behind his exit was things not working out with the INDIA alliance.
“The occasion came because things were not working out. I had stopped saying anything. We took everyone’s views into account including my party. We were working on an alliance (INDIA) for the last one and a half years but things were not working out. Now, we will form a new alliance,” he said.
In a statement, Congress MP and the party’s general secretary media in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that Kumar, who was seen as the chief architect of the INDIA alliance, is giving tough competition to “chameleons”.
“Nitish Kumar, who frequently changes political partners, is giving tough competition to the chameleons in changing colours,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
बार-बार राजनीतिक साझेदार बदलने वाले नीतीश कुमार रंग बदलने में गिरगिटों को कड़ी टक्कर दे रहे हैं।
इस विश्वासघात के विशेषज्ञ और उन्हें इशारों पर नचाने वालों को बिहार की जनता माफ़ नहीं करेगी।
बिलकुल साफ़ है की भारत जोड़ो न्याय यात्रा से प्रधानमंत्री और भाजपा घबराए हुए हैं और उससे… https://t.co/v47tQ8ykaw
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 28, 2024
“The people of Bihar will not forgive this betrayal and those who made them dance on their tune. It is quite clear that the Prime Minister and the BJP are scared of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and this political drama has been created to divert attention from it,” he said.
Nitish, who took oath as chief minister for the ninth time on Sunday evening in alliance with the BJP in the state, is known for his regular shifts between alliances. In 2017, the RJD was in the dark when he suddenly announced his decision to quit the Mahagathbandhan. Then, when he left the BJP two years ago, the saffron party’s leaders too had no clue, until he announced his decision to again switch camps.
K.C. Tyagi, JD(U) spokesperson, on the other hand placed the blame squarely on the Congress for Nitish’s exit.
“A caucus of the Congress wanted to steal the leadership of the INDIA alliance,” he said to reporters.
1“In the meeting that took place on December 19, through a conspiracy, to get the leadership of the INDIA alliance, Mallikarjun Kharge’s name was proposed (as chairperson for the alliance). Earlier in the meeting that took place in Mumbai, it was unanimously decided that the INDIA alliance will work together without any face. The Congress caucus suggested Kharge’s name through Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief). All INDIA alliance parties whether it is Shiv Sena, TMC or SP they have all defeated the Congress and have made their own identity by fighting against Congress. Congress kept dragging the seat sharing, we kept saying that seat sharing needs to happen immediately,” he said.
Tyagi has earlier also criticised the Congress for starting Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and said that the “timing” of the Yatra was not right, and if a yatra had to be planned, it should have been one including all alliance members.
Meanwhile the Trinamool Congress, which served another blow to the INDIA alliance earlier this week when Mamata Banerjee announced that the TMC would fight the Lok Sabha elections on its own at least in Bengal, has also hit out at the Nitish’s somersaults.
“Nitish Kumar is known for his political somersaults at regular intervals. It is unfortunate that he has decided to quit the opposition grouping INDIA and is likely to join the NDA. The people will give a befitting reply to such political opportunism,” TMC MP Sougata Roy said to PTI.
INDIA alliance partner Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut took aim at the BJP for joining hands with “palturam”.
“There is Ram in Ayodhya and Palturam in Bihar. The BJP and Amit Shah himself had called him Palturam when Nitish Kumar had joined hands with Lalu. Shah had also said that the BJP’s doors are closed for Nitish Kumar. They talk about Ram and Ram Rajya on one hand and on the other hand they join hands with Palturam,” he was quoted as saying.
DMK’s T.K.S. Elangovan said that Nitish’s exit shows that the BJP wants to “break the INDIA alliance”.
“I don’t know what kind of pressure he is facing from the BJP. BJP wants to break the INDIA alliance because they are afraid they might lose the elections. They have particularly chosen Bihar by convincing Nitish Kumar that Lalu Prasad may become CM because there is another strong regional party there. That might be used against Lalu Prasad since both of them are in the same alliance, and Nitish may lose his chief minister’s berth seat,” he said to ANI.