Prime Minister Narendra Modi should “worry” about the prospects of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday, a day after he split with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a second time to re-align with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
“He (PM Modi) won in 2014, but should now worry about 2024,” Nitish told reporters shortly after he was administered the oath of office by governor Phagu Chauhan at Raj Bhavan.
Nitish’s jibe at the Prime Minister was the first major salvo fired at the BJP top brass by the Janata Dal (United) and is seen as an indication of Nitish’s attempt to position himself as the opposition’s prime ministerial face in 2024.
The JD(U) leader, however, denied being in the race for the top post.
“I am not in the race for the Prime Minister’s post. I have no such plans,” he said, even as the BJP accused him of “backstabbing” the party and blamed his prime ministerial ambitions for his decision.
It was for the second time that the JD(U), on Wednesday, broke its alliance with the BJP and joined hands with the RJD-led opposition — the first was in 2013 when the party exited after 17 years in the NDA.
{{/usCountry}}It was for the second time that the JD(U), on Wednesday, broke its alliance with the BJP and joined hands with the RJD-led opposition — the first was in 2013 when the party exited after 17 years in the NDA.
{{/usCountry}}But in 2017, in a sequence of events nearly as dramatic as Tuesday’s, Nitish ditched the so-called Grand Alliance and returned to the NDA. In the 2020 assembly elections, the party was for the first time reduced to third position in the state, with the RJD becoming the largest and the BJP the second largest party.
All party legislators and lawmakers were unanimous in their stand to sever ties with the BJP, Nitish asserted. “It was a collective decision of the party functionaries and I heeded to it,” he said.
“We were supporting them (BJP) but there was a conspiracy to weaken us... In fact, I was not keen to become the chief minister then,” he said in an apparent reference to JD(U)’s poor show in the 2020 assembly polls.
Besides Modi, Nitish also took a dig at BJP national president J P Nadda over the latter’s recent remark that “all opposition parties would diminish and BJP will exist” in the country, during the party’s executive meeting in Patna.
“They feel the opposition will be finished. Let them do whatever they feel like. Now, I have come to the opposition and now, I will work to unite all opposition parties. I have done it before too,” he said.
Asked whether he would be elected as convenor of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ahead of 2024 elections, Nitish said: “All would be known at an opportune time as Parliamentary elections are not far”.
Nitish asserted that he is not a member of the opposition camp at the Centre and will work hard to strengthen the bloc by bringing together all opposition parties ahead of the general elections.
He also dismissed BJP’s claims that the new government in Bihar will not last its full term and said his former ally “will be back where they were after the 2015 assembly polls”, referring to the time when the NDA secured less than 50 seats in the 243-strong assembly.
Reacting to Nitish’s remarks on Modi, BJP state spokesperson Nikhil Anand said: “There is no alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and we aspire to make India a world leader under his leadership”
“The JD(U) should not resort to falsehood and lies and create a hypothesis for its petty political act,” he added.
The BJP leader also said that the party had always considered Nitish as a partner since the 1990s, and was precisely why he was chosen to lead the coalition and made the chief minister.
“The person who never won an election on his own to become chief minister should remember that in his individual capacity, he had got just two seats in the 2014 elections,” he said.