Nitish Kumar rules out return to NDA; BJP says won’t welcome even if he begs

On Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ruled out any possibility of returning to the NDA, which he had junked a year ago, to which the BJP said he would not be welcomed back even if he begged for realignment.
Kumar was speaking at a function organised on the occasion of the birth anniversary of RSS icon Deen Dayal Upadhyay. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, Kumar’s former deputy, called the JD(U) supremo a “political liability who had lost his steam” and said he would not be welcomed back even if he begged for a realignment (naak ragdenge to bhi nahin). The drama unfolded at a park in the city’s Rajendra Nagar locality where Kumar came to take part in the function his government had held since it shared power with the BJP. Kumar was accompanied, among others, by his current deputy Tejashwi Yadav, whose party RJD takes pride in having remained uncompromising in its opposition to the BJP. Yadav, who offered floral tributes before a statue of Upadhyay, one of the founding members of the BJP’s former avatar Bharatiya Jana Sangh, insisted that his ideological stance notwithstanding, he was not averse to such niceties. When some journalists claimed he had once said in the assembly that he would discontinue functions held in memory of RSS leaders upon coming to power, Yadav shot back, “I have never said so.” When it was the turn of the chief minister to interact with journalists, he was asked, in a lighter vein, whether he was planning a return to the NDA. Notably, a section of the media has been speculating that Kumar was unhappy with the opposition INDIA coalition not naming him as the convener and that his exchange of pleasantries with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recent G20 event in New Delhi had more to it than what meets the eye.
However, the septuagenarian seemed displeased with the kite flying as he snapped, “What rubbish are you talking”, even as Yadav, who stood by his side, grinned at the exchange. He also responded to queries on future activities of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and voiced disapproval of his party colleagues calling him a “prime minister material”.