The RJD's surge highlights a big worry for the BJP.
Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is once again the largest party in Bihar after four MLAs of Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM joined it on Wednesday. Tejashwi Yadav's new score, along with growing strain in the Nitish Kumar-BJP alliance, can potentially shake up Bihar politics.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha took 24 hours to recognise the RJD additions.
Tejashwi Yadav's party now has 80 MLAs in the 243-member assembly, three more than the BJP. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) has 45 MLAs.
The RJD's boost has the wheels turning at a time Nitish Kumar has demonstrated more in common with the opposition than his ally. The merger is believed to have the blessings of the Chief Minister.
In the 2020 Bihar election, the RJD emerged as the largest party, but the opposition fell short of a majority. Nitish Kumar took power with the BJP but with a vastly diminished status in the alliance with his party finishing third.
Earlier this year, the BJP rose to the top after bringing on board all three MLAs of sacked minister Mukesh Sahni's Vikassheel Insaan Party.
Nitish Kumar's relationship with the BJP is complicated and messy, requiring routine reassurances from the BJP leadership that there is no move to replace him. In the past year, the Chief Minister has often been on the same side as Tejashwi Yadav on issues like the caste census, leading to speculation that he may be open to a reunion; Nitish Kumar was in an alliance with the RJD for nearly two years until he dumped the party in 2017 and took power with the BJP.
Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of opposition in Bihar, described the addition of four MLAs to his party as the "strengthening of secular forces" in the state.
In a move rich in optics, Tejashwi Yadav drove the four MLAs to the assembly in his car yesterday for their meeting with the Speaker.
The AIMIM, headed by Asaduddin Owaisi, won five seats in the 2020 Bihar election but now has only its state president, Akhtarul Iman.
"We want all secular forces to come together and become stronger. And RJD's role in the fight against communalism cannot be overstated. It is because of us that in Bihar the BJP has never mustered the courage to contest an election on its own," Tejashwi Yadav said.
"The NDA may have been able to achieve power in Bihar by unscrupulous means but look at the BJP here. It is putting up with a Chief Minister whose party is a distant third in terms of numbers," added the RJD leader.