Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will convene a meeting of all Janata Dal (United) legislators and parliamentarians on Tuesday, amid speculations of a rift with the BJP. JD(U) on Sunday made it clear that it will not join the Union council of ministers again, but rebuffed speculations of a rift with ally BJP asserting all is well. JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who addressed a press conference here, however, dismissed queries about Kumar's absence at the NITI Aayog meeting.
There has been no official word on the reason behind Kumar's absence.
Lalan, seen as a frontrunner by some for a ministerial berth from the JD(U) after R.C.P. Singh's resignation, clarified that the party wasn't willing to have any representative in the Union Council of ministers. "We had decided in 2019, after the Lok Sabha polls, not to join the government at the Centre. We stick to that stand," he said.
Ties between the BJP and JD(U) have come under scanner following the latter's top leadership asserting that the party is aiming at making a comeback as the largest political force in the state.
Lalan is said to have told some media outlets a couple of days ago that his party was working towards reclaiming its status as the numero uno in the state and undoing the setback it received in the 2020 assembly polls, which he blamed on a conspiracy.
The allusion was to the brinkmanship of Chirag Paswan, who then headed the Lok Janshakti Party and fielded candidates against all JD(U) nominees, many of them BJP rebels, and the chief minister's party saw its tally crash to 43 from 71 five years earlier.
The JD(U) leader's comments have unleashed a storm in a teacup in this highly politicised state with RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari chuckling big trouble is brewing in the NDA. Its boat will sink in the floods that the rainy season brings.
Tiwari for his part believes that Nitish Kumar, with his Samajwadi (socialist) background, will not be able to withstand the BJP's Hindutva agenda.
He, however, became guarded when asked whether there seemed to be a possibility of yet another realignment between the JD(U) and the RJD, which had joined hands ahead of the 2015 assembly polls and parted ways two years later but not before inflicting a crushing defeat on the BJP at the hustings.
"I can only say that Bihar needs, and will get sooner rather than later, a Samajwadi government and the people are seeing new hope in Tejashwi Yadav. It is too early to say what will be the composition of such a government," the RJD spokesman said on Friday.
Lalan is said to have made the remarks in response to queries about the BJP's recent assertion that it looked forward to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections a year later under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, a gesture apparently aimed at pacifying the JD(U) which has been sour over the saffron party's domineering stance.
