PATNA: A day after massive victory in Bihar Assembly elections, talks have begun on formation of the next NDA government in the state. NDA leaders said the government formation process will begin “in two-three days”, once all MLAs reach Patna.
The term of the current Assembly is till November 22. The 18th Assembly will be constituted on or before that day. Coalition partners of the ruling NDA alliance made a beeline on Saturday at 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving incumbent, who heads the JD(U).
Notable visitors included Union minister Chirag Paswan, who is excited at the prospects of his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) sharing power in the state as well.
“I have congratulated Nitish Kumar ji on the victory. The NDA’s win puts paid to the opposition’s false narrative that there has been a rift between the two of us. Even during the campaign, the CM canvassed in seats where our candidate was contesting. We reciprocated the gesture and supported the JD(U) candidate in Alauli, which has been our home turf,” Paswan told reporters.
Paswan said he was “pleased” that the Bihar CM had “appreciated” the role played by all NDA allies. He further said that a “false narrative” was created about the LJP(RV) and JD(U) during the Assembly polls in Bihar. He said his party was eager to “actively participate” in the new government.
Responding to questions on the chief ministerial face, Paswan reiterated that the NDA would follow constitutional procedure and the decision of its elected legislators.
“On the question of the CM face, my party’s position is— as the Union home minister has also said— that the MLAs will elect their leader as the CM. Now we have a leader of our legislators’ parliamentary board.
They will sit together and decide… As far as I believe, CM Nitish Kumar will once again become the chief minister,” Paswan said at his party office.
Paswan accused opposition parties of fabricating a “false narrative” about tensions between him and Nitish Kumar, who he was once seen as confronting politically.
“The opposition created a false narrative that I was not on good terms with Nitish Kumar,” he said.
Paswan ducked queries as to whether the LJP(RV) was hoping to have one of its MLAs as the deputy CM, saying “CM and his deputy are decided jointly by all the legislators”.
The JD(U) president, who would turn 75 in a few months from now, has not been enjoying robust health for some time, though the polls saw him carrying out a dogged campaign.
The JD(U), with 85 seats, has emerged as the second largest party after the BJP, which has a tally of 89. Although Kumar, who has been an MLC, did not contest the elections himself, the polls have been seen as a referendum on his governance.
Another NDA partner Santosh Kumar Suman, whose father Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Union minister and MP from Gaya, is the founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha, also expressed the view that the JD(U) supremo should continue as the chief minister.
While Suman is also an MLC, his wife Deepa and mother-in-law Jyoti Devi are among the five winning candidates of the HAM, which had contested altogether six seats.
Another notable visitor to the chief minister’s residence was Ram Kripal Yadav, a BJP leader and former Union minister whose political career has been resurrected with a victory from Danapur Assembly seat.
Meanwhile, the Jan Suraaj Party, the much-hyped political outfit floated by former poll strategist Prashant Kishor, which failed to make a mark in the elections, claimed that many of its supporters ended up voting for NDA “out of fear that the RJD may win and bring back the jungle.