Nitish-Tejaswi alliance can change 2024 results: Shiv Sena

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has heaped praise on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying he has turned the tables by severing ties with the BJP. All opposition parties should welcome him if Nitish has taken this bold step by keeping in mind the 2024 general elections, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has said.

“If the Nitish Kumar-Tejashwi Yadav alliance remains strong in 2024, it can change the Lok Sabha election results. Nitish has created a storm. If it intensifies into a cyclone, then it can pose a challenge to the BJP,” the Sena said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on Thursday.

Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) had on Tuesday quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined hands with the Tejaswhi Yadav-led RJD to form the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government in Bihar along with other parties.

“The BJP tried to pressurise the MLAs of JDU and RJD with the help of Enforcement Directorate (ED), but they decided to fight for Bihar’s self-esteem rather than to surrender. The repercussions of political revolutions in Bihar, the land of socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan, are felt in the entire country. The BJP, overjoyed by bringing down the MVA government in Maharashtra, is facing revolt in Bihar,” said the Sena.

Just like Maharashtra, the top leaders of the BJP were planning to upstage Nitish by forming a ‘separate Shinde group’ in Bihar. However, Nitish stung back and turned the tables by severing ties with the BJP. The JDU has accused the BJP of being ‘unfaithful.’ While the BJP had planned to destroy Nitish’s party, the plan has boomeranged on itself, the editorial added.

The Sena further said the fissures between Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founder Lalu Prasad Yadav must come to an end now. The RJD and JD(U) had contested against each other in the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls.

Bihar sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the fourth highest after Uttar Pradesh (80), Maharashtra (48) and West Bengal (42).