Hectic parleys as cracks widen in Bihar alliance
Hindustan TimesBihar’s capital was abuzz with rumours that chief minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal could break his alliance with Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, dissolve the state assembly, and rejoin the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party – with the Congress, currently part of the grand alliance ruling the state, and the fledgling INDIA bloc of opposition parties being collateral damage. Both Kumar and the state’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav held meetings of their respective parties on Thursday, ostensibly to discuss the road ahead, even as state BJP leaders were summoned to Delhi to meet party chief JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah. Shah, Nadda, national general secretary Vinod Tawde, who is in charge of Bihar, state BJP president Samrat Chaudhary, national general secretary BL Santhosh and party leader Sushil Modi were present for the meeting. In Patna, one RJD leader confirmed that senior leaders of the party, including former Union minister Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, met Lalu at his 10 Circular Road residence, but called it an “informal meeting”.