Will Nitish Kumar return to INDIA? Congress reaches out to JD(U)

As the gap between the INDIA bloc and National Democratic Alliance’s seat tallies turned out to be smaller than expected, the Congress deftly sent out overtures to the ruling alliance’s leaders, including Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The difference between the number of seats of the two alliances is likely to be around 50, opening the possibility for the INDIA bloc to include some former allies to its fold, including Nitish Kumar and Eknath Shinde.

Overtures were reportedly sent to TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu as well, reported HT.

Nitish Kumar’s JDU was ahead in 14 of 16 Lok Sabha seats it contested in Bihar. Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP was expected to pull off a similar performance.

Together, the duo would have around 28 Lok Sabha seats between them, enough to become the proverbial kingmakers.

Nitish Kumar has had a troubled past when it comes to switching loyalties. Just a few months ago, he switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA from the INDIA bloc. Ironically, it was Kumar who played an instrumental role in stitching the unlikely alliance fraught with inner contradictions.

JDU sources, however, told HT that his party wasn’t planning to shift loyalties yet again.

Still, one Congress leader pointed out that Kumar did not meet the BJP deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary, who went to visit him on Tuesday.

The Congress leaders are also trying to woo Eknath Shinde, whose party, Shiv Sena, was leading in 10 seats.

Shinde was a Congress ally in the undivided Shiv Sena. However, he caused a vertical split in the party founded by Bal Thackeray, pushing the latter’s son and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to the margins of Maharashtra politics.

Thackeray’s party appears to be making a strong come back as it was ahead in around 10 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.

The BJP, which had contested 17 seats, was leading in 11 seats in Bihar. The party appears to be falling short of a simple majority — 272 seats. However, together with its NDA allies, the party can form a government.

The NDA was reportedly leading in over 290 seats. The INDIA bloc was leading in over 230 seats.

The exit polls had predicted the BJP would win over 350 seats, with some pollsters even predicting the ruling alliance could cross its ambitious target of 400 seats.