- Saturday, November 23, 2024
Nitish Kumar, who played a key role in cobbling together the INDIA alliance last year, said not all was okay in the bloc.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Indian Alliance), which aspires to unseat prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party from the saddle of power in upcoming general elections this year, suffered a major blow on Sunday (28) when Nitish Kumar, one of its key leaders, left to join hands with Modi and his party again.
Kumar, who is the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar and played an instrumental role last year in cobbling together the alliance of 28 parties that oppose Modi’s BJP, took oath as the chief minister of his state for a record ninth time, this time with the backing of the BJP.
The 72-year-old leader tendered his resignation to the state’s governor before taking a fresh guard. It was less than two years ago in August 2022 that he had dumped the BJP to make a ruling alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Indian National Congress and a few Left parties.
Read: India’s opposition alliance rocked as key leader Nitish Kumar may join Modi
Kumar told Indian news agency ANI that not everything was okay with the alliance. INDIA has been found struggling to accommodate aspirations of a number of key leaders.
“Today, I have resigned as the chief minister and I have also told the governor to dissolve the government in the state. This situation came because not everything was alright,” Kumar said.
Read: Massive blow to India’s anti-Modi unity as two leaders rule out alliance with opposition Congress
The exit of Kumar will hurt the opposition unity after parties had decided to set aside their differences last year to make an alliance to take on Modi’s BJP and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the general elections. Modi is eyeing a third straight term in this year’s polls.
The main opposition Congress was still trying to portray that everything was fine with the alliance. Its spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said the BJP was scared of the alliance and the latest “political drama had been created” to divert attention.
The party’s chief and the chairman of the alliance — Mallikarjun Kharge — said they knew about Kumar’s move but did not say anything in order to keep the alliance intact.
It was only a few days ago that the alliance faced serious turbulence as Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the eastern state of West Bengal and head of the Trinamool Congress, another major opposition party in India, declared that her outfit will contest the general elections alone in Bengal.
Similarly, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), another member of the alliance that rules the national capital territory of Delhi and northern state of Punjab, said it will not join hands with the Congress in Punjab.
Modi tweeted about the development in Bihar saying the new NDA government will “leave no stone unturned” for the state’s development and fulfilling its people’s aspirations.
In his post, he said, “The NDA government formed in Bihar will leave no stone unturned for the development of the state and to fulfill the aspirations of its people. @NitishKumar I congratulate ji as Chief Minister and Samrat Chaudhary ji and Vijay Sinha ji on taking oath as Deputy Chief Ministers. I am confident that this team will serve my family members of the state with full dedication. @samrat4bjp @VijayKrSinhaBih”
बिहार में बनी एनडीए सरकार राज्य के विकास और यहां के लोगों की आकांक्षाओं को पूरा करने के लिए कोई कोर-कसर नहीं छोड़ेगी। @NitishKumar जी को मुख्यमंत्री और सम्राट चौधरी जी एवं विजय सिन्हा जी को उप मुख्यमंत्री पद की शपथ लेने पर मेरी बहुत-बहुत बधाई।
मुझे विश्वास है कि यह टीम पूरे…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 28, 2024
(With Reuters inputs)
