"This decision is Nitish-ji's decision," said the BJP's Union minister Giriraj Singh.
The BJP has said it is going to Patna as it "can't do anything alone" shortly after Nitish Kumar told his party MLAs about his intention to split Bihar's ruling alliance. Mr Kumar, upset for long with the BJP, will be meeting 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.
"This decision is Nitish-ji's decision," the BJP's Union minister Giriraj Singh told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
"We have always followed the dharma of coalition and maintained the dignity of 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 added.
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.
The BJP had contacted Mr Kumar twice on Monday as the crisis erupted. Sources said Union Minister Amit Shah had dialled Mr Kumar from Delhi. In Patna, several key leaders of the BJP had visited his home.
While the details of the conversations were not available, it clearly was not enough to give Mr Kumar second thoughts about the break-up.
Mr Kumar's decision to call it quits with the BJP, sources close to him have indicated, was because of his deep discomfort with the BJP moves in Maharashtra in dislodging the Uddhav Thackeray government.
The Chief Minister was also deeply concerned with Union minister Amit Shah's move to remote control the state government by installing ministers close to him, sources said.
In the aftermath of Maharashtra, the BJP, JD(U) leaders have alleged, had even dictated who will get the party's sole berth in the Union cabinet -- RCP Singh -- who Mr Kumar felt was a proxy of Amit Shah.
Mr Kumar's grouses against the BJP have been piling up since the 2019 general election when his party was offered a just single seat in the Union cabinet. Ahead of the state elections, the BJP backing to Chirag Paswan had divided the votes, his party said, enabling the BJP to be the big brother in the state.
The two allies have been on a sparring mode since – the issues ranging from BJP leaders humiliating the Chief Ministre to Mr Kumar's efforts to remove the Speaker, to the government's failure to crack down on protesters against the Agnipath scheme for the armed forces.