Lalu’s party shuts door on Nitish Kumar

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the main opposition in Bihar headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, has shut the door on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar whose party suffered humiliating defeats in the recent byelections to one Lok Sabha and two state assembly seats.

Kumar heads the ruling Janata Dal United (JD-U), which is a now a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The RJD said Kumar has the habit of winning elections with its support but ditching it after the polls and hence he has no place in the opposition’s Grand Alliance (GA).

Kumar had broken way from the GA in July last year and joined the opposition NDA shortly after winning the last 2015 state elections in the company of the RJD and the Congress.

“We (RJD) will never ever have an alliance with the opportunist leader who has a habit of winning with our cadres but hobnobbing with the BJP and RSS after elections,” RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav told media.

No support base

He said Kumar was desperately exploring options to “come back to us and stitch an alliance”, but he wouldn’t succeed anymore. “Also, the man doesn’t have his support base which explains his party’s defeat in the recent by-elections,” he said.

The RJD’s statement comes amid reports that Kumar was looking to quit the NDA. What lends credence to this is Kumar questioning the benefits of the NDA government’s demonetisation drive which he once strongly supported, and reiterating his demand for granting special category status to Bihar. He added that the state has been a victim of neglect from the successive central governments.