'Regime change orchestrated by G2': Opposition slams Nitish Kumar's Rajya Sabha move, says 'betrayed mandate'

New Delhi: Opposition parties on Thursday called Nitish Kumar's decision to relinquish Bihar Chief Minister's chair for a seat in Rajya Sabha as a "huge betrayal" of the 2025 mandate and a "leadership coup and regime change orchestrated by G2" while JD(U)'s lone Jharkhand MLA appeared to oppose his party chief's move calling it a "planned design" to sideline him.

Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav said in Patna that it was "betrayal" of the mandate while Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said what his party has been saying during the Bihar election campaign has now come to pass.

"We have been saying from the very beginning that the BJP will not let Nitish Kumar remain the Chief minister after the elections. This is exactly what has happened. This development is against the mandate of the people and amounts to a betrayal of it," Tejashwi said in Patna.

Accusing the BJP of "hijacking" Nitish, he added, "BJP is against OBCs and Dalits. They never want a leader from these communities to occupy the top post. They want a CM who will function like a rubber stamp for the top BJP leadership. I had said they made Nitish Kumar mount the horse like a groom, but are getting someone else to take the wedding vows."

Ramesh said in apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, "a leadership coup and regime change orchestrated by G2 has taken place. It is, in many ways, a huge betrayal of the mandate of the people."

Jharkhand's lone JD(U) MLA Saryu Roy claimed that Nitish going to Rajya Sabha was a "planned design" to sideline him. "Nitish Kumar, who has been the chief minister since 2005, has done a lot of work for the state and brought good governance. The manner in which a person like him was sidelined from the CM's post for the Rajya Sabha, it appears that he is being sent to a shelter," he said

"From the activities that have been going on between Delhi and Patna over the last two days, it seems that this was done according to a planned design. If he had been sent to the Rajya Sabha in a respectable manner, no one would have objected. Being a friend of Kumar, I am not able to digest this decision," he told reporters in Ranchi.

CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that it was not about whatever gameplan the NDA may have been hatching or the transition that the BJP desires in Bihar.

"It is an outright betrayal of the mandate that the NDA sought and got in the name of Nitish Kumar. This is taking Bihar for granted and playing games with the people of the state," he posted on 'X'.