Nitish keeps Oppn, allies guessing

Hectic parleys as cracks widen in Bihar alliance

- Arun Kumar

PATNA: Bihar's capital was abuzz with rumours that chief minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) could break his alliance with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), dissolve the state assembly, and rejoin the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)with the Congress, currently part of the grand alliance ruling the state, and the fledgling INDIA bloc of opposition parties being collateral damage.

The official word from the JD(U) was that there is nothing wrong with the alliance, but it is clear that all is not well between it and the RJD. Both Kumar and the state's deputy chief minister (and Lalu's son) 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. Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi also separately met Shah and Nadda. 

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". He also confirmed that the RJD chief had spoken to Kumar in the afternoon, but claimed it had little to do with politics, and that they spoke of "Republic Day preparations".