Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems to be turning out be a real mystery for the opposition. He appears set to give another blow to the so called ”Maha Gathbandhan” after having announced his support for the NDA backed Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. Latest reports have claimed that the Bihar Chief Minister has decided to skip an opposition meeting on Tuesday for deciding their Vice Presidential candidate.
There have been conflicting theories over his decision. One theory claimed that Nitish is currently recovering from a viral infection and another tried to downplay this angle by pointing out that a JD-U meeting, which would include state legislators and MPs, has also been organized on Tuesday.
What is also adding fuel to the fire is Nitish not condemning or even giving a statement on the recent CBI and ED raids on Lalu and his family, even as the Congress has come out in full support of the RJD strongman.
Speculations of Nitish warming up (again) to the BJP/NDA started when the Bihar Chief Minister had openly supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation. This was followed by him skipping Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s ‘unity lunch’, to attend a luncheon meeting with PM Modi. Modi/BJP has also returned the favor by praising Nitish Kumar’s draconian prohibition law.
Nitish backed this up with his support for Kovind, which had led his alliance partner Lalu Prasad Yadav to describe the decision as a “historic blunder” and later urged Nitish to rectify it by backing Meira Kumar, the opposition’s Presidential candidate. Nitish though refused to budge and claimed that the “Bihar ki Beti” was nominated only to lose.
This was soon followed by other voices of dissent coming out of the JD-U. The party’s general secretary KC Tyagi then came out with an explosive statement that their party was more comfortable with the BJP as an alliance partner. This was also followed by Nitish Kumar’s clear dig at the opposition by stating that it (the opposition) was just protesting for protest’s sake and had no real solutions or alternative narratives to offer.
