Bihar State Chief Nitish Kumar on Tuesday broke ties with PM Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and submitted his resignation to the Governor.
Kumar, who is also the convenor of his party Janata Dal-United (JD-U), told reporters after resigning that there was consensus among his party legislators and parliamentarians that his party should quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by the BJP.
Kumar will form a new government with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress party. Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has also extended its unconditional support to him.
RJD party leader Tejashwi Yadav and Kumar, on Tuesday evening, met Governor Phagu Chauhan to stake claim to form the new government. Yadav has already said they'll ally with the JD(U) party to form government in the state if Kumar quits BJP.
Meanwhile, BJP said Kumar betrayed the citizens of Bihar and accused him of being an opportunist. "The BJP does not suppress anyone, does not betray anyone," federal minister Ashwini Choubey said.
"We [BJP and Nitish Kumar] fought the 2020 polls together under the NDA, the mandate was for JD(U) and BJP," Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said, adding, "We won more seats, and despite that, Nitish Kumar was made the state chief."
On Tuesday morning, all three major parties in Bihar – the Janata Dal (United), the BJP, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal held meetings with their legislators, reported Indian news agency PTI.
'Bumpy' History of Kumar's Political Alliances
Nitish Kumar, who was sworn in as the State Chief of Bihar for the seventh time in 20 years, has a history of calling off the alliance.
After being the state chief for just seven days in 2000, Kumar won the 2005 as well as 2010 Bihar state assembly polls with its ally BJP and was sworn in as the state chief. In 2014, he resigned as the state chief, taking the moral responsibility for his party's poor performance in the parliamentary elections.
In 2014, his party called off the alliance with BJP in the state in protest against the elevation of Narendra Modi as candidate for Prime Minister of India. The following year, Kumar formed an alliance named Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) with RJD and Congress to counter BJP in Bihar. The Grand Alliance won the 2015 elections and he was made the State Chief for the record fifth time.
He called off the Grand Alliance in 2017 after Deputy State Chief and Rashtriya Janata Dal politician Tejashwi Yadav refused to resign following allegations of corruption.
Soon after ending the Grand Alliance, he again shook hands with the BJP and became the state chief for the sixth time.
In 2020, he contested the Bihar state assembly polls with BJP and came back to power. However, his party managed to win only 45 seats as compared to BJP's 77 and RJD's 79.
Following the break-up with BJP again, he will be sworn in as the State Chief for the eighth time.