Nitish Kumar's twist in Bihar: Congress calls him 'chamaleon'

New Delhi: After Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar quit office, Congress came down strongly on him, comparing him to a chameleon. The party said that the state will never forgive Kumar for his "betrayal", PTI reported.

The party was reacting to Kumar's decision to resign as Bihar chief minister leaving the Mahagathbandhan alliance in the state and also dealing a body blow to the opposition bloc INDIA.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said they already knew about Kumar's decision to leave the alliance, but had not said anything to help keep the INDIA bloc together.

"There are many people like 'Aaya Ram-Gaya Ram' in the country. Earlier, he and I were fighting together. When I talked to Lalu ji and Tejashwi ji, they also said that Nitish is going," Kharge said.

The Congress president said if Kumar wanted to stay, he would have stayed, but he wants to go.

"Therefore, we already knew this, but we did not say anything in order to keep the India alliance intact. If we say something wrong, a wrong message will go out. Lalu Prasad Yadav ji and Tejashwi Yadav ji had already given us this information. Today, it has become true," the Congress chief said.

'Aaya Ram Gaya Ram' was an expression used widely in politics in the 1990s referring to the frequent floor-crossing and switching of parties.

Lashing out at Kumar, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said it was clear that a "political drama" was being created in order to divert attention from the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

He said it is clear that the prime minister and the BJP are "scared" of the Yatra being undertaken by Rahul Gandhi, which is set to enter Bihar soon.

"Nitish Kumar, who frequently changes political partners, is giving tough competition to the chameleons in changing colours," Ramesh said in a post in Hindi on X.

The Congress leader said the people of Bihar will not forgive the "expert of this betrayal" and those who made them dance to their tunes.

"It is quite clear that the prime minister and the BJP are scared of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, and this political drama has been created to divert attention from it," the Congress leader said.

Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor Rajendra V Arlekar on Sunday morning. The governor accepted Kumar's resignation and asked him to continue as caretaker CM till a new government is formed, they said.

A new government with the support of the BJP is likely to be in place by the evening, according to sources.