Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to share the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the latter will hold a massive rally in Bihar on February 4, sources have said. The development has come as speculations are doing the rounds that Nitish Kumar may once again switch sides and align with the BJP.
Signs of deepening fissures between Nitish Kumar and his I.N.D.I.A bloc allies have given rise to the possibility of his return to the BJP fold amid hectic efforts within the opposition camp to stall any such development.
In another development earlier today, Lalu Yadav's second daughter Rohini Acharya deleted three posts from social media platform X, in which she indirectly hit out at Nitish Kumar after latter's comments on dynastic politics.
Rohini Acharya took a swipe at Kumar for "changing his ideology as the wind changes its direction" in posts on 'X' following the JD(U) president's swipe at parties promoting family members in politics, a BJP leader well-versed with the state's politics said the party will be guided by its future political imperatives, and not past bitterness.
He, however, noted that any call has to be taken by the party's top brass.
The BJP has been showing signs of warming up to Kumar, who has swapped his alliance preference between the saffron party and the RJD-Congress-Left camp frequently while remaining in power, with its leaders toning down their criticism of him of late and even praising him at times.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself sounded more open to such a possibility in a recent interview.
Asked about the likelihood of the Janata Dal (U) president's return to the BJP-led alliance, Shah said the party will consider if such a proposal is ever made.
Earlier, Shah had often asserted that the doors had been closed for Kumar's return to the country's ruling alliance.
Bihar's longest-serving chief minister has been cut up with the INDIA bloc for not getting a position in the alliance commensurate with his stature and also favours an early assembly poll to go with the Lok Sabha elections, a suggestion which has not drawn a positive response from the RJD, the biggest party in the state's ruling alliance, sources said.
JD(U) and RJD leaders have also been sniping at each other amid apprehensions among Kumar's supporters that their ally has been trying to undermine him in matters of governance as well as politics.
Kumar's decision to take over as the party president by cutting short the tenure of Lalan Singh was seen as a determined effort by him to take firm control of its organisation amid suggestions by a section of JD(U) leaders that the chief minister's confidant may have grown too close to the RJD or was pursuing an independent agenda.
The RJD has, however, taken some placatory moves by first agreeing to the relegation of Education Minister Chandra Shekhar to the relatively insignificant portfolio of sugarcane industries.
With inputs from PTI
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