RJD's Manoj Jha hails Magagathbandhan govt, says "map of 2024 is clear"

"This entire Mahagathbandhan is stronger with Nitish Kumar coming (into the alliance). So, the map of 2024 is clear up to a great extent," told Manoj Jha to ANI.

Just hours before the Bihar Cabinet expansion, sources have learned that a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s core group chaired by national president Jagat Prakash Nadda is likely to take place at the party headquarters on Tuesday evening.

This meeting is to be held in the presence of BJP co-incharge for Bihar, Harish Dwivedi, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, and BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal among the others. At present, the BJP doesn't have an in charge after Union Minister and former General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav went on to become a minister.

This meeting chaired by Nadda is likely to look into the Bihar political upheaval and how the BJP can motivate its cadre further as well as look at the immediate floor test which Nitish Kumar will undertake on August 24.

In the meeting, there will be a discussion on the new organizational form of Bihar, including the selection of the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly. A session of Bihar assembly session starting on August 24 will also witness Nitish Kumar undertake a floor test.

Nitish Kumar had broken away from the BJP and formed a government with the RJD and other parties earlier this month. The Chief Minister and his deputy--RJD's Tejashwi Yadav - took oath on August 10.

Janata Dal (United) on August 9 unanimously decided to snap ties with the BJP and Nitish Kumar's party joined hands with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in a stunning switch of power.

It was in 2020 when the BJP- JD(U) combined won the Assembly election for Bihar and Nitish Kumar was made the chief minister, despite BJP being the single largest party.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had deserted the NDA for the first time in 2013 after Narendra Modi became the coalition's Prime Ministerial candidate and then again ditched his coalition with the RJD-Congress combine in 2017 to walk back into the NDA camp.

What began as a tiff between the two partners ended up in a full-blown split after Nitish Kumar accused the BJP of trying to split his party and suspected former union minister and JD(U) leader RCP Singh to be in cahoots with the saffron camp. Singh, once a close aide of Nitish Kumar, soon resigned over charges of corruption and admitted that joining the BJP was an option. (ANI)