Major blow for Bihar CM Nitish Kumar: 15 JD-U district panchayat members switch sides, join BJP

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently broke off his alliance with the Bhartiya Janta Party, causing the latter to lose power in the state. Now, the war between the two parties has intensified as several JD(U) members have decided to switch sides.

In a major blow to Nitish Kumar and his party, 15 out of 17 district panchayat members of JDU of Daman and Diu and the entire unit of state JDU joined the BJP on Monday. This comes soon after JD(U) joined hands with former rival RJD to form a government in Bihar.

Slamming Nitish Kumar’s party after the tough blow, the BJP said in the tweet that JD(U)’s decision to leave the BJP had given impetus to development in Bihar and to choose the ‘Bahubali’, a “corrupt and dynastic party.”

Notably, a few days ago, a bulk of JDU MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh joined the saffron party, and very recently 5 out of 7 MLAs from Manipur embraced the BJP. Five Janata Dal (United) MLAs merged with the ruling party BJP last week in the presence of BJP party president J.P Nadda.

The Bharatiya Janata Party secured a majority of 32 seats in the 60-member state Assembly in the recently held Assembly elections, results of which were declared on March 10.

On 25 August 2022, the lone JDU MLA from Arunachal Pradesh joined the saffron party in the presence of national president JP Nadda and Arunachal CM Pema Khandu. BJP stands at 49 out of 60 Assembly seats (MLA) with the merger of lone JDU MLA Techi Kaso with BJP.

Nitish Kumar turned his back on BJP a few months back when he decided to form a new government in Bihar by forging an alliance with foe-turned-friend RJD, snatching the power away from the saffron party.

The Bihar Chief Minister had accused the BJP of trying the take the power in the state away from him and creating a “Maharashtra-like” situation, due to which he decided to break off the alliance.