Nitish Kumar quit INDIA bloc due to Bihar caste survey, claims Rahul Gandhi

Two days after Nitish Kumar ditched the RJD in Bihar and returned to NDA, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted the Bihar chief minister and said he left the alliance under pressure. Gandhi said Nitish Kumar, who was the architect of the INDIA bloc, quit the alliance due to the Bihar caste survey.

"Understand why Nitish Ji got stuck. I told him straight that 'you will have to conduct caste census in Bihar'. And we (Congress), along with RJD, insisted on Nitish ji conducting the survey. But the BJP got scared. They are opposed to this plan. Nitish ji got stuck and BJP provided him the back door to run away!" Gandhi said while addressing a rally in Purnia.

Also read: 'Good Riddance' for INDIA alliance, says Congress' Jairam Ramesh on Nitish Kumar's return to NDA fold 

The Congress leader said: "It is our alliance’s (INDIA bloc's) responsibility to give you all social justice and we don’t need Nitish ji for it."

Nitish Kumar had contested the 2020 assembly elections with the BJP. However, in August 2022, he snapped ties with the saffron party to form the government with Lalu Yadav's RJD. It was Nitish who initiated talks for the grand alliance to take on the BJP in 2024. He also hosted the first INDIA bloc meeting in Patna in June last year. 

However, Nitish reportedly got fed up with Congress' delay on seat-sharing and no announcement of the convenor of the bloc. India Today reported that Nitish decided to quit the alliance after Congress said it would take a call on convenorship after discussing with Mamata Banerjee, who had already proposed Mallikarjun Kharge's name for the post.   

Rahul Gandhi, however, claimed that Nitish Kumar had decided to make a 'U-turn' after he succumbed to "a little bit of pressure". He cracked a joke over Nitish's switching sides again and said, "The Chief Minister went to take oath at Raj Bhavan and after swearing in, he leaves. In the car he realises he forgot his shawl. He tells the driver to return. He goes back to Raj Bhavan. Governor says "Why are you back, so soon!"

"A little bit of pressure, and he makes a U-turn," Rahul Gandhi said, adding, "But why the pressure in the first place? Because our alliance is raising the issues that matter to people."