After 5 Janata Dal United MLAs from Manipur merged with Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reckoned if it was “constitutional” assuring that the opposition will unite for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
- After 5 Janata Dal United MLAs from Manipur merged with Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reckoned if it was “constitutional” assuring that the opposition will unite for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
- As per the statement issued by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat, the Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly is ready to accept the merger of five JDU MLAs with the BJP under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.
A day after 5 Janata Dal United MLAs from Manipur merged with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday reckoned if it was “constitutional” and assured that the opposition will unite for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.Â
“When we parted ways from the National Democratic Alliance, all our 6 Manipur MLAs came and met with us. They assured us that they were with Janata Dal United. We need to think about what is happening. They are breaking away MLAs from other parties, how is this constitutional?” said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“Oppositions will unify for 2024 elections,” Kumar further added. As per the statement issued by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat, the Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly was pleased to accept the merger of five JDU MLAs with the BJP under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.
These names include Kh. Joykishan Singh, Mohd. Achab Uddin, Ngursanglur Sanate, Thangjam Arunkumar and LM Khaute. The Bharatiya Janata Party secured 32 seats in majority in the 60 member state Assembly in recently held Assembly elections, who’s results were declared on March 10. Previously, a bulk of JDU MLAs joined BJP in Arunachal Pradesh giving a blow to Nitish Kumar’s party.
Previously on 15 August, one JDU MLA from Arunachal Pradesh, Techi Kaso, also joined BJP in the presence of national president JP Nadda and Arunachal CM Pema Khandu, with which the BJP now has 49 out of 60 Assembly seats. Out of 9 Corporators in JDU, 8 have joined BJP and now the total number of BJP corporators is 18 out of 20.
Further, 17 out of 18 Zilla Parishad members (ZPM) of JDU have joined BJP. Now out of 241 members, BJP holds 206 Zilla Parishad members. In addition, out of 119 Gram Panchayat Members of JDU, more than 100 have joined BJP. With this, BJP now has around 6530 out of 8332.
The newest political developments come weeks after CM Nitish Kumar dumped BJP and joined hands with Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and others to form a `mahagathbandhan` and govern Bihar. Those aware of the development say that BJP has decided to hit back at the JDU after what happened in Bihar recently. In 2020, the BJP-JDU fought election as an alliance and went on to form the government with Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister.
In less than two years, Nitish Kumar flipped his choices and went on to stitch alliances with RJD and Congress to form a Grand Alliance government in Bihar. At a JDU conclave on Saturday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar mounted an attack on BJP and said that the party will be sent packing with just 50 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by a united Opposition.
“If all opposition parties fight together, BJP will be bundled out by about 50 seats. I am devoting myself to that drive”, said Kumar at a JDU meeting of national executives in Patna. The JDU leader’s statement comes ahead of his two-day trip to Delhi on September 5, during which he will convene with political leaders across party lines in a bid to forge Opposition unity. Kumar downplayed buzz that he may emerge as the prime ministerial candidate and asserted that his only goal is to unite the Opposition to unseat BJP from power.
