Bihar: What Major Parties Said On Nitish Kumar's Switch

Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar chief minister earlier today and announced that his party, the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) is walking out of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar and allying once again with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Kumar is expected to take the oath once again as chief minister later today, 28 January.

Soon after Kumar's announcement, the leadership of the Bihar unit of the BJP announced forming the government with JD(U). It is expected that Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha will be the deputy chief ministers in the new government.

This was followed by a statement to the press by KC Tyagi, a JD(U) leader considered close to Nitish Kumar. "Congress wanted to steal the leadership of INDIA alliance. In the meeting that took place on 19 December, through a conspiracy, to get the leadership of INDIA alliance, Mallikarjun Kharge's name was proposed (as PM face), earlier in the meeting that took place in Mumbai, it was unanimously decided that without any PM face, INDIA alliance will work...through a conspiracy, Mamata Banerjee was made to propose Kharge's name as PM face", Tyagi said.

Reacting to the developments, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that he already knew that Kumar would switch sides and that Lalu and Tejaswi had told him the same. Another Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh said that Kumar was giving tough competition to chameleons in changing colours and that all of this only showed that the BJP was scared of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

In the Bihar Assembly, the RJD holds 79 seats, followed by the BJP with 78, JD(U) with 45, Congress with 19, CPI (M-L) with 12, and smaller parties with varying seat counts. The Assembly speaker belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal of the Lalu Yadav.

RJD leaders, including Tejaswi Yadav, met yesterday, 27 January to discuss the situation, with Yadav stating that the real game in Bihar is yet to unfold, and emphasized his tenure's achievements.