Nitish's JD(U) passes resolution to join hands with NDA

Patna: Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) passed a resolution to join National Democratic Alliance in the party's National Executive meeting on Saturday.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up outside Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's residence where JD(U) National Executive meet is underway after demonstration by Sharad Yadav and RJD supporters.

In July, Nitish Kumar had stepped down as Bihar Chief Minister and snapped the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress. The next day, Nitish took oath as the chief minister with NDA led BJP's support.

Nitish ended his two-year-old grand alliance with the RJD and Congress, citing a “call of conscience” over corruption charges slapped against his former deputy and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejaswi Yadav.

Read: War of posters: JD(U) factions claim publicity before Sharad, Nitish's meets

Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejaswi are central to a CBI inquiry into the land-for-hotels deal when Lalu was the Union railways minister. 

Nitish had nearly a decade long alliance with the NDA before he split in 2013 as soon as Narendra Modi was announced as the face of the BJP campaign for the 2014 general elections.

After the JD(U) was reduced to two seats in the 2014 general polls, Nitish teamed up with Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Congress and the alliance made the NDA taste its first big defeat in the 2015 state polls.

Nitish has since campaigned in Uttar Pradesh calling for a ‘Sangh Mukt Bharat’ and a ‘Sharab Mukht Samaj’. After the Grand Alliance had formed, he had called out the BJP for playing the “politics of dividing… be it in the name of caste or religion”.