JDU

Sources have said that the Janata Dal (United) top leadership has more than six audio recordings where its MLAs and a minister were given lucrative offers to rebel against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. However, it is not clear which party and leaders gave the offers to the JD(U) MLAs.

"Yes, it is true that some of the people tried to make the hole in the bottom of ship to make it sink but we spotted it within time and repaired it," Lalan Singh said while accusing R.C.P. Singh of damaging the party but "our leader Nitish Kumar spotted his activities and did appropriate treatment". Earlier on Saturday, R.C.P. Singh said that the JD-U is a sinking ship as he also gave his resignation from the primary membership.

State Education Minister and JD-U leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said: "We are not going to join the Narendra Modi cabinet. The JD-U needed the desired respect from the BJP but it did not happen. Hence we have decided to avoid inclusion in the Narendra Modi government." However, he added that this decision "will not affect our alliance with BJP in Bihar".

"The land was purchased in the names of my two daughters Lipi Singh and Lata Singh. The former is an IPS officer and latter is an advocate. Both of them have been filing ITR since 2010. Besides, I also served as an IAS officer for a long time and distributed my properties and wealth to my daughters. So, we did not obtain lands illegally," Singh said in Nalanda.

The party has asked RCP Singh to clarify how the registries of 58 plots have been done in the names of himself, his daughters - Saharsa SP Lipi Singh and Lata Singh, and family members. The party has mentioned that RCP Singh was associated with Nitish Kumar as a bureaucrat and has served as two time Rajya Sabha MP, party's national president, organisational secretary of the party as well as union minister in the Central government.

Defending Kumar's absence, Janata Dal-United parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha asserted that the chief minister is not bound to attend all the events. Responding to the proposed visit of BJP leaders Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda to Patna for a high-level meeting of the party ahead of Lok Sabha election 2024, Kushwaha stated: "In Bihar, Nitish Kumar is the biggest leader. It hardly matters for us if any top leader of another party is coming to Bihar."

Minority Affairs Minister Jama Khan, of the JD-U, said: "The investigation is currently underway. There is no clarity over whether the organisation (PFI) is involved in anti- national activities or not. Hence, you can't declare an organisation illegal. How could a ban be imposed on an organisation only on the basis of the assumption of some people.

A BJP insider said that the political relation between BJP and JD-U turned sour during Agnipath agitation when BJP state chief Sanjay Jaiswal and other leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi blamed the Nitish Kumar government of not firmly tackling the largescale violence. Meanwhile, JD-U leaders like its national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Upendra Kushwaha have asked the Centre to rethink on that scheme.

After returning from London on Thursday evening, when Tejashwi was asked about forming a government with Nitish Kumar, he said: "All these things are imaginary. I don't see anything to reunite again to form a political alliance for the formation of the government in Bihar." He further said: "Caste-based census was my initiative. I had written a letter to the chief minister to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year."

A highly placed source in the JD-U said that Nitish Kumar is firm on his decision to not to send RCP Singh in the Rajya Sabha for the third time and the latter is trying to regain the confidence of the Chief Minister again. On Friday evening, Nitish Kumar attended the wedding function of his old loyalist's son in Bihar's Arrah town. For RCP Singh, it was evident that he was the closest person to Nitish Kumar at a time. During the function, the gap between these two leaders was visible in the photographs.