Nitish Kumar on January 28 resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar, saying “things were not working well” for him in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ or the grand alliance and the opposition bloc INDIA, and formed a new government with the BJP. Kumar’s latest crossover, his fifth in a little over a decade, is being seen as a big setback for the opposition unity ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
There are 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP and JD(U) contested 17 seats each and the Lok Janshakti Party was in the fray for six seats. BJP and LJP emerged victorious on all the seats they contested while Nitish’s party won 16 seats out of the 17 it contested.
India TV in its opinion poll asked, ‘Has Nitish Kumar’s resignation as Bihar CM pushed the I.N.D.I.A bloc on the backfoot?’ While 88 per cent were of the view that the I.N.D.I.A bloc is virtually finished, 9 per cent think just like Congress which is of the view that Nitish Kumar’s move to join the NDA will have no impact. 3 per cent remained undecided.