NDA or grand alliance: Nitish Kumar keeps everyone guessing

Will he join the NDA or form a 'grand alliance?' Nitish keeps everyone guessing

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar continues to keep everyone guessing. While on one hand, he has been holding talks with some BJP leaders to return to the National Democratic Alliance fold, on the other, he speaks about a Bihar-styled coalition to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"Only a Bihar-styled coalition can take on the BJP," he told media persons in Bihar on Monday. He laid the emphasis on the Congress to take the initiative since it was the bigger party. "I have been holding discussions with the Left parties too," he said while adding that the formation of a 'grand alliance', was the only way to take on the BJP.

Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United had formed an alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and won the Bihar elections. However, since the past few months, there is talk that all is not well in that camp. Kumar, a prime ministerial aspirant, had walked out of the NDA after Narendra Modi was chosen to lead the coalition. However, in the past few months, Nitish has been singing praises and even commended the decision made by Modi on demonetisation.

Explaining why a coalition was needed, he said that in Uttar Pradesh the BJP won because there was no grand alliance. He said that the vote percentage of the Congress-SP alliance and the BSP together was at 10 per cent more that what the BJP had polled.

OneIndia News