Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party had offered support to him only the day he resigned from the post and walked out of the alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress. Kumar said that contrary to popular belief, he had had no inkling that he would return to the National Democratic Alliance fold, insisting that everything happened in “quick time”, PTI reported on Tuesday.
“I know none of you will believe me that I had no previous thinking of joining hands with the BJP after tendering my resignation to the governor on July 26,” Kumar told reporters. “After I resigned, when an offer came to us from the BJP, I placed it before my legislators who had gathered at my Anne Marg residence for the legislature party meeting, and they decided that the offer should be accepted.”
Hinting at the RJD, Kumar said that a “behind-the-scenes game” was being played out to “lure Janata Dal (United) lawmakers to defect from the party”. “My MLAs refused all allurements and told me who came to them with huge offers,” he said, without naming any party or individual.
The Bihar chief minister also said that senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav would lose his Rajya Sabha seat if he attended the RJD’s rally in Patna on August 27.
On July 26, Kumar had resigned from his post of Bihar’s chief minister. A day later, he was re-elected as the chief minister with the support of 53 MLAs of the BJP.
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