Nitish, Tejashwi leave for Delhi on same flight

Patna: With NDA and INDIA bloc scheduling separate meetings of alliance partners in Delhi on Wednesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his arch rival RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav left for the national capital on the same flight from Patna airport, sources said.

Kumar, whose NDA-allied JD (U) has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, has emerged as a key player in government formation as the BJP has failed to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own, while the INDIA bloc is also sending feelers to him.

Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD, an INDIA bloc partner, has secured four Lok Sabha seats.

Kumar had during the weekend visited Delhi and met top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Other NDA partners in Bihar — Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) – have won five and one seats each respectively.

Yadav, before leaving for Delhi, told reporters, “RJD has increased its number of seats in Parliament and garnered over one crore votes. Our performance has been very good. We had contested the elections on real issues. The INDIA bloc got the blessings of Lord Ram. One thing is very clear… the Modi factor is now finished. BJP is now dependent on its allies for majority.”

“We will obviously try,” he said, while responding to a query on whether the INDIA bloc will try to form the government.

Meanwhile, Paswan and his winning MPs called on Kumar in the morning and “congratulated him and sought his blessings”.