Nitish Kumar was speaking in Samastipur where he inaugurated an engineering college (File)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday vowed that he would never ally with the BJP again - a telling pledge from the leader who has been braving allegations of frequently switching sides since his latest falling out with the party that governs at the centre two months ago.
"The way they (BJP) are behaving with everyone else, I have gone my own way, and mark my words, I will never go with them again in any way in my life," he said at a public event in Samastipur.
"We old-time socialists will stay together. We will work for Bihar's progress as well as the development of the country. We want your cooperation," he said, in reference to his latest coalition with Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
After a years-long partnership with the BJP in the state and at the centre, Mr Kumar had his first break-up with the party when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was named its Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 national elections.
He then formed what came to be known as the "Grand Alliance" with long-time rival Lalu Yadav and the Congress before calling it quits and going back to the BJP in 2017 over corruption charges against Mr Yadav's son and his (then and now) deputy Tejashwi Yadav.
At the event on Friday, Mr Kumar was heard virtually exonerating the veteran leader over the latest corruption charges against him.
"Every time we come together, they start a new case, but there's nothing in it," he said, referring to the alleged job scam during Lalu Yadav's tenure as Railway Minister in the Congress-led UPA government over 10 years ago.
Since partnering with Lalu Yadav's party, now led by his son Tejashwi Yadav, the Congress and a few smaller parties yet again in August, Nitish Kumar has been working on knitting the opposition into a cohesive front against the BJP ahead of the 2024 national election.
During one of his last visits to Delhi, Mr Kumar met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and before that, most key opposition leaders. The list included Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Nationalist Congress chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Left leaders.