Unpredictable leader to stay with ruling NDA forever
Patna, India - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - the man who came to be known as the country’s most unpredictable leader switching sides in regular intervals - may now continue in the current alliance in which he served the state for 15 years.
Coming under major attacks from all quarters including some in the Bharatiya Janata Party, with which the Janata Dal (United) supremo fomalised coalition, Kumar on Wednesday said he would stay in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) forever and will continue to work for the people of his state.
Kumar dumped the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and the I.N.D.I.A bloc to form a new government with the support of the BJP in the eastern Indian state.
Hitting out at the opposition’s grouping, which has vowed to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Kumar said that the opposition alliance failed to offer a formidable force against the ruling NDA for lack of cohesion.
“Till today they haven’t decided which party will contest how many seats,” he said.
Dissatisfied Kumar also had a reservation with the name of the alliance’s name -
I.N.D.I.A.
“I was urging them to choose another name for the alliance. But they had already finalised it. I was trying so hard. They did not do even one thing.”
“Then I left them and came back to who I was with initially. Now I will stay here forever. I will keep working for the people of Bihar,” Kumar sought to convince the media during a press conference in Patna, the capital of his home state.
He confirmed that the new government will seek a trust vote in the state assembly on February 10.
Congress General Secretary (Communication) Jairam Ramesh said: “I thought Narendra Modi was a master of U-turns... but Nitish Kumar has left even the master of U-turns behind.”