“He Should Make Sure…”: Tejashwi Yadav On Nitish Kumar’s Kingmaker Role

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should utilise his position as “kingmaker” in the NDA to ensure special status for Bihar. 

On Wednesday, photos of the RJD leader sitting with his former boss on a flight to Delhi went viral on social media. Both NDA and INDIA partners flew to the national capital to hold meetings after the Lok Sabha Election results failed to give a majority to the BJP.

“NDA has numbers but we want the government which will be formed to take care of Bihar and ensure that it gets special status. It is a good opportunity for Nitish Kumar if he is the kingmaker, he should make sure that Bihar gets a special status and conduct caste-based census in the entire country,” Mr Yadav told news agency ANI, adding that for the first time, PM Modi’s “magic was finished” and he would be dependent on NDA allies to form a government. 

The photo of the two leaders sparked a buzz of a likely INDIA reconciliation for Nitish Kumar who has a record of political flip-flops. Last year, Mr Kumar crisscrossed the country trying to gather support from opposition leaders to form a united bloc to take on the BJP-led NDA.

In one of the viral photos, Mr Yadav was seen sitting behind Mr Kumar on the flight. However, another set of photos clicked some time after, showed the former INDIA allies sitting next to each other, smiling. “We greeted each other, I was allotted the seat behind him but he saw me and called me to sit with him,” Mr Yadav said.

As per the results announced by the Election Commission of India, the BJP-led NDA secured 294 seats in the 543-member Parliament — 22 more than the majority mark of 272 while the INDIA Opposition bloc won 234 seats, falling short by 38 seats.

Now, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu and JDU’s Nitish Kumar, both NDA allies, hold the key to the doors to power. While the two contested the general election in an alliance with the BJP, INDIA leaders are learnt to have reached out to them to convince them to join the Opposition bloc.

While Mr Naidu has pledged support to the NDA, Mr Kumar’s close aide and JDU leader KC Tyagi told news agency ANI that the party will stay with the BJP alliance.