Patna: Days after he dumped the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and the INDIA bloc to form a new government with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar asserted that he will now stay in the fold of the National Democratic Alliance “forever”.
Addressing reporters in Patna, Kumar also criticized the INDIA bloc, saying that they said he had urged the Congress and other members of the Opposition’s alliance to not name the political group ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA’.
“I was urging them to choose another name for the alliance. But they had already finalized it. I was trying so hard. They did not do even one thing. Till today they haven’t decided which party will contest how many seats,” Kumar said.
He added: “Then I left them and came back to who I was with initially. Now I will stay here forever. I will keep working for the people of Bihar.” Earlier this week, Kumar announced the end of the 17-month-old coalition government run by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), Congress and Left parties.
Hours later, he joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and took oath as chief minister for the third time in four years, and ninth since 2005. Two Deputy Chief Ministers from the BJP, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, and six other ministers, including Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Santosh Kumar Suman, Shrawan Kumar, and others, also took the oath with Kumar.
Earlier, Congress General Secretary (Communication) Jairam Ramesh criticized Kumar for switching sides. “I thought Narendra Modi was a master of U-turns… but Nitish Kumar has left even the master of U-turns behind,” he said.
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It was not for the first time that Kumar switched sides. In 2005, he formed his first government in alliance with the BJP. He snapped ties in 2013, fought the 2014 Lok Sabha polls alone and the 2015 assembly polls in alliance with the RJD. He again returned to NDA in 2017. In 2019, the JD(U) contested the national polls and 2020 Bihar elections as part of the BJP-led grouping. In 2022, Kumar quit the NDA to form the government again with the RJD, Congress, and Left parties.
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