Nitish rejoins NDA, INDIA falls apart

Congress takes biggest hit, loses more ground in the northern belt

- MANOJ CG

THE JOURNEY OF the Opposition INDIA alliance began at his official residence seven months ago. As Nitish Kumar walked out of the alliance on Sunday and took oath as Bihar's chief minister for the ninth time with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the leaders of the embattled Opposition coalition were clearly at a loss.

Two deputy CMs from BJP, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, and six other ministers, including Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Santosh Kumar Suman, Shrawan Kumar, also took the oath on Sunday.

The biggest setback of Nitish Kumar's latest is for the Congress. Virtually wiped out of the Hindi heartland in the last round of Assembly elections, the grand old party's cold comfort in the northern belt was the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar and the seat-sharing pact it is negotiating with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. Barring Jharkhand, where it is in alliance with the JMM, the Congress is in a straight fight with the BJP in all other Hindi-speaking states.

More than the number of seats it would secure in the alliance and win, the Congress was hoping that the INDIA bloc would put a stop to the Narendra Modi juggernaut in these two states, which together account for 120 seats.

WITH KUMAR walking away and rejoining the NDA, there is now uncertainty on the INDIAbloc's electoral fate in Bihar.