Day after resounding victory, NDA leaders meet Nitish Kumar over govt formation in Bihar

Patna: With a landslide victory in Bihar assembly polls placing the NDA firmly in the saddle, leaders of the alliance on Saturday appeared to have got down to the brass tacks of forming a new government in the state.

Coalition partners made a beeline at 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving incumbent, who heads the JD(U).

Notable visitors included Union minister Chirag Paswan, who is excited at the prospects of his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) sharing power in the state as well.

“I have congratulated Nitish Kumar ji on the victory. The NDA’s win puts paid to the opposition’s false narrative that there has been a rift between the two of us. Even during the campaign, the CM canvassed in seats where our candidate was contesting. We reciprocated the gesture and supported the JD(U) candidate in Alauli, which has been our home turf,” Paswan told reporters.

Situated in his native Khagaria district, Alauli, a reserved seat, was represented by the Union minister’s late father Ram Vilas Paswan in the 1970s, and, after he became the MP from Hajipur, uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras - now estranged from the family - represented the constituency several times.

JD(U)’s Ram Chandra Sada, a former MLA, wrested the seat from sitting RJD MLA Ram Vriksh Sada, while Yash Raj, the son of Paras, who was making his debut from his father’s party Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, finished third.

Paswan ducked queries as to whether the LJP(RV) was hoping to have one of its MLAs as the deputy CM, saying “CM and his deputy are decided jointly by all the legislators”.

He, however, added “personally, I feel that Nitish Kumar ji should continue to lead the government”.

The JD(U) president, who would turn 75 in a few months from now, has not been enjoying robust health for some time, though the polls saw him carrying out a dogged campaign.

The JD(U), with 85 seats, has emerged as the second largest party after the BJP, which has a tally of 89. Although Kumar, who has been an MLC, did not contest the elections himself, the polls have been seen as a referendum on him.

Another NDA partner Santosh Kumar Suman, whose father Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Union minister and MP from Gaya, is the founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha, also expressed the view that the JD(U) supremo should continue as the chief minister.

“I think Nitish Kumar will continue as the CM. Everything will be finalised in the next two-three days,” said Suman, after a meeting with the JD(U) chief.

While Suman is also an MLC, his wife Deepa and mother-in-law Jyoti Devi are among the five winning candidates of the HAM, which had contested altogether six seats.

Another notable visitor to the chief minister’s residence was Ram Kripal Yadav, a BJP leader and former Union minister whose political career has been resurrected with a victory from Danapur assembly seat.

He expressed bewilderment over speculations that the BJP was trying to back him for the deputy CM’s post, in a bid to break the near complete sway of RJD, the main opposition party, over Yadavs, the most populous caste in Bihar.

Once a trusted aide of RJD president Lalu Prasad, Yadav was mocked at his former mentor’s son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav for having claimed that the INDIA bloc would be forming its government on November 18.

“These are daydreams,” said Yadav, who had been in political wilderness since he losing Patliputra Lok Sabha seat to Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti in the general elections last year.

He also refused to comment on outbursts of Bharti’s younger sister Rohini Acharya, who has announced that she was quitting politics and “disowning” her family, blaming the decision on two close aides of Tejashwi Yadav.

BJP OBC national general secretary Nikhil Anand, however, sought to fish in troubled waters, as he came out with a statement, lauding Acharya for having donated her kidney to her ailing father a few years ago.

Anand also exhorted Acharya and Bharti to “fight” and assume leadership of their father’s party.

The RJD, which was the single largest party in the outgoing assembly, has been drubbed, winning less than 30 seats, a performance that is likely to put question marks on the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav.

Meanwhile, the Jan Suraaj Party, the much-hyped political outfit floated by former poll strategist Prashant Kishor, which failed to make a mark in the elections, claimed that many of its supporters ended up voting for NDA “out of fear that the RJD may win and bring back the jungle raj”.

The party’s national president Uday Singh, a former BJP MP, also claimed that “polarisation” in the aftermath of the Red Fort car blast at Delhi and “bribing of voters” by the state government through doles and freebies, had played a role in the NDA’s better-than-expected performance.