On a day when Nitish Kumar skipped the Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bihar Chief Minister reportedly called up Congress president Sonia Gandhi and convened a meeting of all his Legislators and MPs amid reports of a widening rift between BJP and JD(U).
While what transpired in the talk is not known and leaders of both parties are tightlipped, sources said they conversed for about 15 minutes.
Interestingly, both the RJD and JD(U) have called meetings of their Legislature Party on Tuesday, indicating some major churning in Bihar politics in the next 48 hours.
Amid reports that the JD(U) was plotting to part ways with the BJP, the Nitish-led outfit has decided not to join the Union Council of Ministers. After former Steel Minister RCP Singh resigned from the Modi Government on being denied a Rajya Sabha renomination by Nitish, there is no representation of the JD(U) in the Cabinet.
“We stick to our stand of 2019 when, after the Lok Sabha polls, we had decided not to join the Government at the Centre,” JD(U) president Lallan Singh told a Press conference. Singh asserted that in 2019 when Nitish decided that the JD(U) will not join the Union Cabinet, he held wide consultation with leaders. However, RCP Singh, as the then JD(U) president decided to join the Modi Cabinet, he said.
“RCP Singh may be claiming that he had the consent of Nitish Kumar to join the Modi Cabinet, but has Nitish ever said so?” Lallan Singh asked.
He also said that in the 2109 State Assembly elections, the JD(U) was reduced to the third position in Bihar behind the RJD and the BJP because Nitish became a victim of a conspiracy.
“When the time comes we will expose the conspirators,” Singh said. It is believed that Chirag Paswan sabotaged JD(U)’s prospects at the behest of the BJP by putting up LJP candidates. The BJP has denied the charge, but JD(U) is not convinced. Singh also said that it is not decided that the JD(U) and the BJP will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha poll together. “When the time comes we will decide,” he said.
Incidentally, recently BJP chief Nadda announced in Patna that BJP and JD(U) will contest the 2024 LS polls in the alliance.