If reports are to be believed, state BJP leaders were well aware of the possible move by Nitish Kumar and had informed the central leadership accordingly.
New Delhi: Hours after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s announcements to part ways with BJP and forge an alliance with RJD, BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal termed the move as a betrayal with the people of the state and BJP.
Though Jaiswal, in a press conference, said that the people of Bihar will not tolerate it at all as the mandate was given to run a JD(U)-BJP coalition for five years, sources BJP leaders did not make “serious efforts” from their side to convince Nitish Kumar to continue the coalition government in the state. In other words, BJP let JD(U) walk with the RJD.
If reports are to be believed, state BJP leaders were well aware of the possible move by Nitish Kumar and had informed the central leadership accordingly. Even the central BJP leaders did not talk to Nitish Kumar as they were aware of Kumar’s national ambitions. BJP leaders firmly believe that Nitish Kumar has been trying to grab the position of Opposition leader ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
According to sources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had dialled Nitish Kumar hours before he announced to break the alliance but Shah’s efforts could not bear fruit. Political analysts claim that the BJP, which was in the know of Nitish Kumar’s nature of “betrayal”, wants to use Nitish’s move as a tool in the next Lok Sabha polls and play the victim card.
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Analysts also feel that BJP, which has a strong cadre base in Bihar, may consolidate votes through “sympathy”. It is also believed that the BJP wants to bring up before the electorate stories from the ‘Lalu era’ which was marked with crime and rampant corruption. BJP may also use bitter incidents between JDU and RJD during and after the Mahagathbandhan 1.0 and use them to garner votes in their support.
Another message which the BJP probably wants to spread is that it has played a role of a ‘big brother’ in the state. The party leaders said that despite having more MLAs, BJP had cleared the way for Nitish Kumar on six occasions. Notably, if Nitish Kumar takes oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar once again, it will be his eighth consecutive oath. On six occasions, he got support of BJP while on one occasion RJD supported him to become the CM.
