Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav are coming to Delhi in a same flight, as both NDA and INDIA bloc meeting are scheduled to take place in New Delhi a day after Lok Sabha election results. The duo coming together to Delhi in a same flight has fuelled speculations around an unexpected political development as both have been in alliance government in Bihar.
Nitish Kumar is expected to take take part in the NDA meeting scheduled in the national capital today, highly placed sources said. Kumar, whose party is set to grab 12 out of the state's 40 seats, will be leaving for Delhi today.
The Bihar Chief Minister had visited Delhi during the weekend when he met top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the BJP falling short of majority, Kumar is being seen as a key player whom the opposition INDIA bloc is also sending fillers.
According to reports, Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Chaudhary, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha, JD(U) MP Lalan Singh visited Nitish Kumar earlier this morning. LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan also went to meet Nitish Kumar. The Bihar Chief Minister has left for the airport. His flight to Delhi is at 10:55 pm.
With the BJP falling short of a majority in the Lok Sabha and needing the NDA allies to form the government at the Centre, Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) head Nitish Kumar and TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu have emerged as potential kingmakers.
While Kumar's party was leading or had won 12 seats, the TDP was leading or had won 16 Lok Sabha seats, according to the latest election commission data.
The NDA was stirred into life mostly around elections in the last 10 years as the BJP's big majority and shrinking opposition in Lok Sabha made its allies mostly redundant but with the saffron party expected to win about 240 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha this time around, allies will matter more than ever.
Kumar's relationship with BJP goes back to the mid-1990s when Kumar had collaborated with veteran socialist leader late George Fernandes to float the Samata Party, as a revolt against Lalu Prasad, the then chief minister of Bihar, who had acquired an overbearing presence in the Janata Dal founded by former prime minister V P Singh.
The alliance with BJP, which ruled the country from 1998 to 2004, also provided much-needed exposure to Kumar who held key portfolios like agriculture, railways and surface transport in the cabinet of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
However, it was not until 2005 that the moment of glory came for Kumar, whose party was by now known as JD(U), formed after the merger of the Samata Party with yet another rebel Janata faction headed by late Sharad Yadav.
The JD(U)-BJP combine won the assembly polls, and Kumar became the chief minister, a post held by Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi for 15 years.
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