Patna:
LJP leader Chirag Paswan, who ran a fierce campaign against Nitish Kumar in the recently concluded Bihar election, offered his congratulations to the JDU chief this evening, minutes after he was sworn in as Chief Minister for a sixth time.
The “congratulations”, though, was immediately followed by swipes at the veteran politician, with Mr Paswan indicating Nitish Kumar ought to thank the BJP for “making (you) the Chief Minister”.
“Congratulations to Nitish Kumarji for becoming Chief Minister again. I hope the government will complete its tenure and you will continue to be the Chief Minister of the NDA,” Chirag Paswan wrote in his first tweet.
“Made by 4 lakh Biharis, I am sending the vision document (the LJP’s election manifesto – Bihar First, Bihari First) to you… whatever work you can complete from it, do it. Congratulations once again on becoming Chief Minister and (to) the BJP for making you Chief Minister,” he added.
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar on Monday evening, five days after the JDU-BJP alliance scored a narrow win in state elections. The BJP secured 74 seats in the 243-member Assembly, relegating Mr Kumar’s JDU – which won only 43 – to second place in the alliance.
The NDA, overall, secured 125 seats, thereby crossing the majority mark by just three.
The win (and reversal of fortunes – in 2015 the JDU won 71 and the BJP 53) meant Nitish Kumar’s ambition of returning as Chief Minister was in the hands of the BJP.
Although the BJP repeatedly said, during campaigning, that Mr Kumar would be Chief Minister if the NDA won, the shift in power led to speculation the JDU boss might be relegated, or even dropped.
On Sunday, though, the newly-elected NDA legislators of Bihar met to formally name Nitish Kumar as their leader and Chief Minister. Mr Kumar had told the media last week that the NDA will take a call on the Chief Ministerial candidate — a statement seen as an indication of nervousness.
He also ranted over the BJP’s handling of Chirag Paswan, who despite being an NDA ally, had contested solo declaring that he wanted a “Nitish-Mukt (Nitish-free) Bihar”.
The BJP had earlier denied claims it had a pre-poll deal with the LJP to do just what it did – drastically reduce Nitish Kumar’s influence and position in the NDA.
One big factor in the JDU’s downturn in fortunes is believed to be Chirag Paswan and his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which fielded candidates against the Chief Minister’s party in every seat and wound up eating into the JDU vote share.
The LJP may have won just the single seat (Matihani, where Raj Kumar Singh secured 333 votes more than Narendra Singh of the JDU) but secured 5.66 per cent of the total vote share. The BJP, which emerged as the senior member in the NDA, secured 19.46 per cent, and the JDU 15.39 per cent.
