Nitish Kumar

Highly placed Trinamool Congress sources said that the chief minister is expected to reach Patna on June 22 afternoon and there is a possibility of her meeting with former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad. The probable meeting on this count is being viewed as quite crucial as Mamata Banerjee has already made it clear that she would not be able to provide support to the Congress in West Bengal .

On Tuesday, Nitish Kumar cancelled his Tamil Nadu trip at the last moment when Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav reached the airport and waited for Chief Minister for half an hour. At the last minute, Nitish Kumar sent his trusted leader of his kitchen cabinet Sanjay Kumar Jha along with Tejashwi Yadav to Chennai.

"If Nitish Kumar has any proof about me, then he should disclose it in the public domain. We do not have such blood or nature to do spying and pass the messages from one place to another," Manjhi said while interacting with media persons in Gaya. "The real truth was Nitish Kumar applying pressure on me to merge.

This is the reason why he pressured Manjhi to merge his party with JD(U) or leave the Mahagathbandhan, the JD(U)chief stated. Manjhi, he said, may have turned into a spy for BJP to know the plans of Mahagathbandhan especially the mega meeting of 17 opposition parties scheduled to be held in Patna on June 23.

"I don't know about the early election, but I must say that Nitish Kumar is a forecaster now. He knows everything and we are not knowing anything," Singh said. Reacting to the opposition unity meeting in Patna on June 23, Singh said, "Everyone has the right to do the meeting, but I must say that Nitish Kumar is failing to control his own state and is trying to address the issues of the country."

"Due to illogical sand and liquor policies, the financial structure of Bihar has almost collapsed hitting the poor the most. I raise this point in every public meeting and in Assembly. Our party members questioned me on my association with the 'anti-people' government. Finally, I gave in to the people's demand and decided to quit the government," Manjhi said.

The Nitish-led state cabinet suffered the latest jolt on Tuesday when Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Santosh Kumar Suman, son of former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, tendered resignation from the cabinet. Suman was SC/ST minister in the Nitish's government. "I am resigning from the cabinet but not withdrawing support from the Mahagathbandhan government. We (HAM) are still part of the Mahagathbandhan government.

"After the bridge collapsed last year, what action had been taken against the company or officials? The Nitish Kumar government became blacklisted in front of the people of Bihar. Nitish Kumar is clarifying things but people of Bihar had seen how the bridge flew in the air last year and collapsed again on Sunday. This is the actual Nitish model of governance in Bihar," Chaudhary said.

The remarks came on the day when Nitish Kumar faced questions over the under-construction bridge collapse on river Ganga on Sunday in Bihar, while he was trying to bridge the gap between the opposition parties ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

He added that the presence of Congress was needed for the meeting. "Except for the Congress, the majority of the opposition political parties had agreed to meet in Patna on June 12. The Congress leadership was not comfortable with the venue.