INDIA alliance will break in Maharashtra too: BJP MP Radha Mohan Das Agrawal

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Amid reports that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may switch sides by pulling his party JD(U) out of the 'mahagathbandhan' in Bihar, BJP MP Radha Mohan Das Agrawal said that the INDIA alliance will break in Maharashtra too, reported news agency ANI.

"INDIA alliance will break in Maharashtra too. This was a strategic posturing by the Congress to show that the party was solely standing against the BJP and PM Modi, and Rahul Gandhi was the only opposition," Agrawal said on Saturday, reported ANI.

He further said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was also never with the INDIA alliance.

"Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann kept saying that they (AAP) would win seats in Punjab on their own. In Haryana, both could not form a pact. This had to happen. In the situation that exists today in the country, who is there to challenge BJP and PM Modi? The truth is that the parties that are left in the INDIA alliance have realised that the wave that has developed in favour of the BJP, if they don't stand with the BJP, they will be finished," he said, reported ANI.

He added that, due to this reason, the left-out structure is also going to break, reported ANI.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann also announced that the ruling TMC and the AAP wouldn't ally in the two states respectively with the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The ruling JD(U)-RJD-Congress coalition in Bihar is on the brink of collapse, as there is likelihood that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could cross over to the NDA again, the alliance he parted his ways in 2022 to form the 'mahagathbandhan'.

The BJP has the largest number of 17 MPs in Bihar, where the total number of Lok Sabha members is 40. The JD(U), headed by Nitish Kumar, has 16 while another NDA ally LJP, now split up between the uncle-nephew duo of Pashupati Kumar Paras and Chirag Paswan, has six.

In the Bihar Assembly of 243, the RJD has 79 MLAs; followed by the BJP's 78; the JD(U)'s 45' the Congress's 19, the CPI (M-L)'s 12, two each of the CPI(M) and CPI, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular)'s four seats, and the AIMIM's one, plus one Independent legislator.

If Nitish Kumar crosses over, this would be the fourth time he would be switching sides.

(With inputs from ANI)