Nitish Kumar government will fall after polls: Ram Vilas Paswan

The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar will fall after the general election results are out, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said Thursday. Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just before the elections, said dozens of Nitish Kumar's legislators would desert him. "It is certain that Nitish Kumar government would fall after the polls outcome and there will be a mid term-polls in the state by November this year," Paswan, who is upbeat over exit polls projection that show the BJP-led NDA emerging victorious in the Lok Sabha polls, told media persons here.

Paswan said his party's alliance with the BJP will last long in Bihar. "LJP and BJP would together contest next assembly polls in the state and NDA will win a majority and would form the next government in Bihar," Paswan said. Paswan's LJP joined hands with BJP in February to contest the Lok Sabha polls. BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain too said that the Nitish Kumar-led government is in danger and would fall after the election results are declared.

But he ruled out that the BJP would do anything or make any attempt to cause the fall of the state government. Last week, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who was deputy chief minister to Nitish Kumar until the two parties fell out, claimed that over 50 legislators from Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United are in touch with his party as they are unhappy with the chief minister. The Nitish Kumar government would fall due to internal contradictions after the Lok Sabha polls, said Modi. BJP leader CP Thakur last Thursday said his party should form a government in Bihar if the Nitish Kumar government falls after the Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJP should not mind taking outside support of like-minded legislators to form a government if the JD(U) government collapses after the end of the Lok Sabha polls," he then said. Besides them, BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan during campaigning in Bihar too predicted that the Nitish Kumar government would fall. Speculation is rife that if the JD(U) performs poorly in the Lok Sabha polls, the result is bound to have an impact on the state government. According to JD(U) leaders, some BJP leaders have been instructed by the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to disturb the state government after the polls.

In 2009, the JD(U) won 20 of 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar and the BJP, then its ally, won 12 seats. While the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) bagged four seats, the Congress and Independent candidates shared two seats each.