Key Points
JDU supremo Nitish Kumar's realignment with BJP-led NDA has delivered a severe jolt to the INDIA bloc as well as Bihar's RJD-led grand alliance just a few months before the Lok Sabha polls..
Congress and other Opposition parties tried to put on a brave face by saying that they were aware of his U-turn plot and claimed BJP won't succeed in its attempts to create confusion among the Opposition parties and divert the focus from Rahul Gandhi's yatra..
However, many Opposition leaders privately admitted that BJP and Kumar teaming up meant NDA reclaiming upper hand from RJD-led grand alliance in the caste combinations that dictate the politics of Bihar, which sends 40 Lok Sabha members to Parliament...
BJP had similarly "wrecked" Maharashtra's MVA alliance earlier by breaking Shiv Sena and NCP to neutralise the political-social advantage the Opposition had established in the western state, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats..
Beyond the Opposition sound bites mocking the "chameleon acts" of Kumar, some Opposition leaders acknowledged that politically seasoned Kumar has once again demonstrated his characteristic grip on his party MLAs and on the risk-prone political situation while crossing over, without giving any chance to his seething estranged allies to ambush him mid-way..
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