Nitish Kumar to meet party MLAs today amid buzz on rift with BJP | Top points

Patna, Aug 09: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will hold a meeting with all Janata Dal (United) MLAs and MPs today amid the buzz of a conflict with its NDA partner BJP in the state. The Congress and RJD have indicated they are ready for Grand Alliance 2.0 if he dumps the BJP.

There have been mixed signals from JD(U) leaders regarding the future of their party's alliance with the BJP but everyone has maintained that they will stand by whatever decision Kumar takes today.

Here are latest facts on the current political drama brewing in Bihar:

• The rumours of a possible split between JD(U) and BJP escalated after Nitish Kumar skipped the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. This was said to be the fourth government meeting that Kumar had skipped in the recent past. On the same day, however, Kumar was attending other events in Bihar.
• Tensions escalated over the weekend as senior leader RCP Singh quit the JD(U) amid corruption allegations. Post the resignation, came the party's announcement that it would not send any representative to the central cabinet. "We stick to our stand of 2019 when, after the Lok Sabha polls, we had decided not to join the government at the Centre," JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh - aka Lalan Singh - told reporters on Sunday.
• Allies since the 1990s, JD(U) and BJP have in the recent past squabbled over a host of issues ranging from 'Agnipath' defence recruitment scheme, caste census, population law and ban on loudspeakers.
• Meanwhile, Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, led now by Tejashwi Yadav, and the Congress have also scheduled meetings today. Both parties have indicated that they are ready for an alliance if Kumar ditches the saffron party. Smaller parties Hindustan Awam Morcha and CPIML have also offered unconditional support to Nitish Kumar.
• The BJP, which reached out to Kumar twice on Monday, has said it will wait for his decision. The saffron party has showed remarkable restraint with no leader of it making a comment on the situation. Party leaders met behind closed doors at the houses of Deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad and Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha late in the evening yesterday though none came out with a word on what transpired.
• What brought on the meltdown was the dismantling of the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra - the planning of which was publicly attributed to the BJP by Thackeray's challenger Eknath Shinde. Sources indicated that Kumar was concerned about a similar turn of events in Bihar. The JD(U) has condemned BJP chief JP Nadda's statement that "Only the BJP will remain, regional parties will disappear".
• Unhappy with the BJP since Narendra Modi was announced as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the NDA in 2013, Nitish Kumar had allied with the RJD and the Congress two years later. But he ended it in 2017 citing corruption charges against Tejashwi Yadav, his deputy at the time, and partnered with the BJP once again.
• In the 243-member state assembly, the BJP has 77 members while the JD(U) has 45 members. The RJD - with 127 MLAs - is the single largest party. Its leaders have already been giving statements that it would be ready to back Nitish Kumar if he quits the NDA.