Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that it only takes “a little pressure” for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to switch alliances.
Gandhi’s remark came two days after Kumar returned to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. He had left the alliance only 18 months ago.
Speaking at a rally in Bihar’s Purnea district, Gandhi said that the Mahagathbandhan alliance, comprising the Congress, Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties, will continue to fight for social justice and does not need Kumar, PTI reported.
The Congress leader, who is currently leading the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, also narrated a fictional incident to take a jibe at the chief minister frequently switching alliances.
“Your chief minister left for his residence after taking oath in front of the governor,” Gandhi said at the rally. “In his car, he realised that he had left his shawl at the governor’s house. When he returned to collect it, the governor told him ‘You are back already’.”
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is a large-scale outreach programme of the Congress led by Gandhi. He is slated to travel 6,200 kms across 15 states.
On Sunday, Kumar took oath as Bihar’s chief minister for the ninth time, with the support of the BJP. Until that morning, the Janata Dal (United) was a constituent of the Mahagathbandhan alongside the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress at the state level and the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level.
The INDIA bloc is a coalition of 28 Opposition parties that plan to take on the National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha elections.
On Sunday morning, before being sworn in again, Kumar indicated that he was “having difficulties” working with his party’s Mahagathbandhan partners and said his resignation was advised by senior party leaders.
The decision came a month after the Janata Dal (United) had said it does not intend to make any compromise in seat-sharing negotiations with the Congress in Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Under Kumar, the Janata Dal (United) had earlier allied with the BJP on two occasions, only to break ties later. The chief minister first broke the alliance with the BJP in 2013 after it projected Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
He joined hands with the BJP in 2017 again, but left the alliance and returned to the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led bloc in August 2022.
In January 2023, Bihar’s longest-serving chief minister stated that he would rather die than ally with the BJP. The BJP had also said that its doors were permanently closed for Kumar.
Also read: Why does the anti-defection law not apply to Nitish Kumar?
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