• Source:JND
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Bihar Political Update: The political atmosphere in Bihar is changing rapidly as speculations are rife about JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) again to form government in the state. Meanwhile, RJD, which is one of the alliance partners with Kumar in the grand alliance government in Bihar, called a meeting of close aides in Patna.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called the state executive meeting for January 27 and 28, reports news agency PTI, citing sources. According to the sources, the party's Bihar in-charge, Vinod Tawde, will go to Patna tomorrow.

RJD leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Manoj Jha, said that his party is willing to continue the alliance and that it has never played such games.

"We can only request Nitish Kumar to clear the confusion by evening. This confusion about the alliance, which is affecting the normal lives of people... from our side it is very clear. So this confusion emanating from media reports is also confusing us. You will not see any comments from our side. So I will request, he clears the confusion and 'idhar-udhar'. The chief minister will also be watching media reports. RJD never did this khela (game)," he said.

Amid the entire changing political landscape in Bihar, let's look at the numerical equations of the BJP, RJD, and JD(U) in the Bihar Assembly.

The total number of MLAs in each party consists of:

RJD- 79
BJP- 78
JD(U)- 45
Congress- 19
Left- 16
HAM- 4
AIMIM- 1
Independent- 1

The total number of seats in the Bihar assembly is 243, and in order to claim strength in assembly, a party needs to have at least 122 MLAs in their favour. Presently, the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government in Bihar consists of RJD, JD(U), Congress, and three Left parties, which have a total of 159 MLAs. But if Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) backs out of the grand alliance, the group will be left with only 114 MLAs, leading to the collapse of the coalition government. 

Now, if Nitish Kumar joins hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) again, they will have a total of 125 MLA which is three more than the magic figure they need to form the government in the state. 

In 2020, Nitish contested the assembly election in alliance with the BJP. However, he jumped on the saffron party's ship in 2022 and joined the Grand Alliance to form the government.