In less than 24 hours, Bihar witnessed a political turmoil where a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ broke and another came into place, not entirely surprisingly.
Late on Wednesday evening, Nitish Kumar resigned as the Bihar Chief Minister citing differences with Lalu Prasad’s son, Tejashwi Yadav, over corruption charges on him. As soon as he resigned, there were whispers of him joining hands with the BJP. By late night it had become official: Nitish Kumar had dumped the Mahagathbandhan with RJD and Congress and joined hands with the BJP. On Thursday morning, Nitish was sworn in as CM again. For the sixth time.
Amid all this, political leaders and their parties had quite a few things to say. Have a look at who said what about Bihar’s current scenario:
Tejashwi called Nitish “opportunistic.”
Papa Lalu Prasad Yadav questioned Nitish’s newfound morality
The Congress Party, so far in alliance with Nitish, now called him opportunistic
Congress leader Digvijai Singh taunted Nitish
Aam Aadmi Party jumped in the fray and criticised the big political change
BJP’s rival Samajwadi Party too took digs at Nitish
AIMIM chief called the drama scripted
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister and a vocal critic of BJP, is likely to attend RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s ‘BJP bhagao, desh bachao’ rally on August 27. While Banerjee hasn’t commented on Kumar’s patch up with BJP, The Indian Express reported that she will attend to rally to “show solidarity with the anti-BJP movement.”
Amid all this, the pone party smiling wide was of course the BJP, Nitish’s new political ally in Bihar
It started with PM Narendra Modi congratulating Nitish for his ‘stand against corruption’
To which Nitish replied:
(Feature image source: PTI)