Nitish Kumar appears‘Relaxed’after U-turn, rejoining NDA

The talk of the town in Patna after Nitish Kumar took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the ninth time, noticeably Nitish's body language has changed with the change of alliance partners. The Bihar CM is “cool and relaxed” after joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and was tremendously “tensed” in the Mahagathbandhan. However, BJP state leaders were reluctant to welcome back Nitish to the NDA fold after the JD(U) leader, who has earned the moniker of “Paltu Ram”, deserted the NDA in 2022 and came back to RJD. In fact, Nitish had left his ties with the RJD and went back to the NDA in 2017. Tactics as shaped by BJP noticing Nitish Kumar's flip-flops, the BJP decided to make Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both sharpest critics of Nitish Kumar, as deputy CMs. This has been done strategically just to keep Nitish Kumar on a tight leash. On the other hand, the lined up issues will be inclusive of discussion on seat distribution for the Lok Sabha election soon. In 2019, the BJP and JD(U) had fought on 17 seats each and six were allotted to the LJP. However, this time, with Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD) and two factions of the LJP in the mix, the allies could feel the squeeze. JD(U)'s demand of 17 seats under the 2019 formula but according to sources the BJP was not ready to leave more than 12 to 14 seat to JD(U).