Stung by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's sudden switching sides, the Bihar unit of the BJP accused him of betraying the people of the state. Addressing a press conference in Patna, Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said the people of Bihar will "never forgive" Nitish Kumar.
"We fought the 2020 polls together under NDA, the mandate was for JD(U) and BJP. We won more seats, despite that Nitish Kumar was made the Chief Minister. Whatever happened today is a betrayal of Bihar's people & the BJP," Mr Jaiswal said.
Mr Kumar, who walked away from the alliance with the BJP accusing them of attempting to weaken his party, will meet the Governor at 4 pm. He will be accompanied by Tejashwi Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal and leaders of other parties supporting him, sources have said.
BJP's Union minister and the party's big face in Bihar Giriraj Singh earlier today told NDTV that his party followed coalition dharma and it was Nitish Kumar's decision to split.
"We have always followed the dharma of coalition and maintained the dignity of the alliance," Mr Singh said. "When we had 63 MLAs, he had 36, we made him the Chief Minister. Today Nitish seems to be shopping," he said.
Senior BJP leaders from Bihar are flying to Patna to discuss the fallout of the split. Among them will be Sushil Kumar Modi and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Nitish Kumar met with his MLAs before coming to his decision on dumping the BJP for a second time. He met with the Governor late this afternoon to hand in his resignation. "I've resigned, and I've informed my MLAs about this," he said to the media after seeing the Governor.
The tension between the two parties hit breakpoint over Nitish Kumar's concerns that Union Minister Amit Shah is working relentlessly to split the Janata Dal (United).
