Bihar govt may fall in day or two, says BJP ally

BJP ally and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Santosh Kumar Suman said on Friday that the Bihar government may fall in a day or two, amid indications that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could snap ties with the INDIA bloc and return to the NDA.

Suman, who is an MLC and son of former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, said the BJP has so far not categorically told his party about any impending alliance with the JD(U), which is headed by Kumar.

”It appears to me that this government will fall in a day or two,” he told PTI.

Amid deepening fissures in Kumar’s ties with the RJD and the Congress, BJP leaders have indicated that they are open to tie up with him again.

Earlier in the day, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said doors are never permanently closed to anyone in politics.

He told reporters, ”As far as Kumar or the JD(U) are concerned, doors are never permanently closed in politics. Closed doors open when the time comes but whether they will open or not is for our central leadership to decide.” The BJP has been keeping in touch with its Bihar allies, including Manjhi, Chirag Paswan, Upendra Kushwaha and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, amid evolving political developments in the state.

Manjhi’s party has four MLAs who could play a critical role in the balance of power in the state.

He was part of the INDIA bloc earlier and Suman was a minister in the Bihar government. His party quit the grouping to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) last year. BJP sources said the JD(U) joining their alliance will ensure that the NDA will sweep the Lok Sabha polls.

It won 39 of Bihar’s 40 seats in the 2019 elections.