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Political circles have been abuzz amid rumours that Nitish Kumar and his party Janata Dal (United) will ditch the struggling Opposition alliance and join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The 72-year-old is expected to meet the Bihar Governor at 11.30 am today and tender his resignation, sources said. He will hold a meeting with all JD(U) legislators before leaving for Raj Bhawan to meet the Governor.
BJP sources have told NDTV that the process of Nitish Kumar breaking away from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and officially aligning with the BJP is underway. Instead of Nitish Kumar stepping down, BJP eyes reshuffling the Bihar cabinet by replacing RJD ministers with its own MLAs.
All BJP MLAs in Bihar have already given letters of support to Nitish Kumar, sources have said. The BJP and JD(U) have also finalised a seat-sharing agreement for the Lok Sabha election due in three months.
The reports have sent RJD and the Congress into a huddle, with both parties holding several meetings to discuss the plan of action if Mr Kumar exits. JD(U) was among the top parties in Opposition’s INDIA bloc which aims to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls.
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.
Leaders of the RJD yesterday met at the residence of national vice-president and former chief minister Rabri Devi, who shares her government bungalow with Tejashwi Yadav, her son, and husband Lalu Prasad, who is the party president.
While some RJD leaders are said to be in favour of staking claim to form the new government, hoping to cobble up the support of eight MLAs the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ requires to go past the majority mark, others, including Tejashwi Yadav, appear to be not impressed with the idea since the JD(U) and the BJP together have more than 122 members in the 243-strong assembly.
According to sources, Tejashwi Yadav told party leaders that the game is yet to begin in Bihar.
“Whatever remained undone in two decades, we managed to get it done within a short time- be it jobs, caste census, increasing reservation, etc. ‘Bihar mein abhi khel hona baki hain’ (The game is yet to begin in Bihar)” Mr Yadav reportedly said.
Six European countries paused funding for the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) on Saturday, following allegations that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland on Saturday joined the United States, Australia and Canada in pausing funding to the aid agency, a critical source of support for people in Gaza, after the allegations by Israel.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, said on X. “This stains all of us.”
The agency said on Friday it had opened an investigation into several employees and severed ties with those people.
Encouraging more donor suspensions, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said UNRWA should be replaced once fighting in the enclave dies down and accused it of ties to Islamist militants in Gaza.
“In Gaza’s rebuilding, @UNRWA must be replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development,” he added on X.
Deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq, asked about Katz’s remarks, said: “We are not responding to rhetoric. UNRWA overall had had a strong record, which we have repeatedly underscored.”
Lazzarini said the decision by the nine countries threatened its humanitarian work across the region, especially in Gaza.
“It is shocking to see a suspension of funds to the Agency in reaction to allegations against a small group of staff, especially given the immediate action that UNRWA took by terminating their contracts and asking for a transparent independent investigation,” he said in a statement.
The Palestinian foreign ministry criticised what it described as an Israeli campaign against UNRWA, and Hamas condemned the termination of employee contracts “based on information derived from the Zionist enemy”.
UNRWA was set up to help refugees of the 1948 war at Israel’s founding and provides education, health and aid services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It helps about two thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million population and has played a pivotal aid role during the war that Israel launched to eliminate Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Announcing the investigation, Lazzarini said on Friday that he had decided to terminate the contracts of some staff members to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance.
Lazzarini did not disclose the number of employees allegedly involved in the attacks, nor the nature of their alleged involvement. He said, however, that “any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror” would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
During weeks of Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, UNRWA has repeatedly said its capacity to render humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza is on the verge of collapse.
Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinians’ umbrella political body the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said cutting support to the agency brought major political and relief risks.
“We call on countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision,” he said on X.
The Foreign Ministry in Germany, a major donor to UNRWA, welcomed UNRWA’s investigation, saying it was deeply concerned about the allegations raised against agency employees.
“We expect Lazzarini to make it clear within UNRWA’s workforce that all forms of hatred and violence are totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” it said on X.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)