Nitish Kumar's 'ghar wapsi' has demolished Opposition house

Nitish Kumar's walking out of Bihar's Grand Alliance extinguished the flicker of hope in the secular camp to take on the BJP-led NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 general elections.

With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi still to find acceptability as a leader of any potential grouping, Nitish was an ideal choice due his "impeccable" image.

Though the CBI raids and corruption cases against Lalu and his clan triggered Mahagathbandhan's demise, the JD (U) and BJP leaders had begun secret talks in March itself.

BJP leaders call it Nitish's 'ghar wapsi' and hope to give a stable and capable government in Bihar. Opposition leaders, cutting across many divides, were looking at Nitish to repeat the magic of VP Singh, who had in 1989 successfully ousted Rajiv Gandhi from power.

Even though when it was believed that Nitish was in secret talks with the BJP, political observers question the role of the Congress, which could have saved the alliance. Since Saturday, when he arrived here, Nitish met Rahul twice, asking him to impress upon the RJD to withdraw deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav from the government or at least explain allegations levelled in the CBI FIR.

Failing, he put last hopes on Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who during the UPA-II regime, was instrumental in removing many central ministers after allegations surfaced against them.

But insiders here said she had indicated that sacking a minister on the basis of an FIR didn't appear reasonable against the backdrop of the BJP's refusal to drop any of its tainted leaders.

On Monday, when Tejashwi met her at the insistence of his father, she did express worry about the fate of the alliance, but didn't appreciate Nitish's "stubborn" attitude. The Congress has 27 MLAs, all of whom have come out in vocal support of RJD leaders.

The Congress was too late to rush its senior leader CP Joshi to Patna to explore the possibility of calling a meeting with JD (U), RJD and Congress legislatures to chalk out the possibility of forming a new government and saving the alliance.

A senior Congress leader admitted that there was already a high degree of trust deficit with Nitish after he ditched Meira Kumar to support Ram Nath Kovind as presidential candidate.

"We know political blackmail and witch-hunt are part of Narendra Modi's strategy to break Opposition unity and Nitish has fallen into the trap," said a senior Congress leader.

He said that Nitish has been engaging with the BJP central leadership over the past few days at a time when communication with Lalu had virtually collapsed. If there is no suspicion about the JD (U)'s intentions, various ways could have been explored to save the coalition.

JD (U) leader Neeraj Kumar said that there was no question of compromising on corruption.